The whole battle, from the bravely foolish charge of the Royal Navy cruisers and destroyers to the twin weather-changing eruptions, is recorded from the air in multiple angles by the UAVs launched by Bismarck. Knowing that this battle is too important to hear it as a second-hand report, Yuki drags the relevant scientists, chiefly Einstein, Mobius, Nicolae, and even Dreamer, down to ONI's underground command bunker. Together, they watch, analyze, and comment on the real-time footage of the Hunt for Bismarck, showing on the many large screens of the command room they're in.
"To think that with two of them going off, we had changed the local weather forecast in a mere minute." Einstein said, fiddling with her red-frame glasses. "And the damage was even more devastating than the earlier stationary tests."
The mechanical genius then looks at a replay of the two underwater explosions, looping at a 0.5-time speed. Einstein's words grabbed the attention of Dreamer, who is pouring over the recorded data on her military tablet. Swiping the tablet to remove the data screen before turning it off, Dreamer stretches her arms and back, saying. "The weather there was already misty enough due to the recent storm. With the two Orkans sending up even more vapor in the air, it wasn't a surprise for it to start raining again. But it's as you say, no one expected it to pour in a minute at most."
Nicolae chimes in. "It goes to say that high-yield weapons like the Orkan can have unexpected side effects on the environment at large, even with all of us combining our heads together." She then pauses the screen replaying explosions, right when the base surges start falling down on the Erusean warships. "Just imagine what could have been when we went for the nuclear warheads route instead of runes. The aquatic environment there would have been contaminated in radioactive waste for a century at the very least." Despite her cautious words, Nicolae seems to be more captivated by the destructions shown on screen than anything else. She has a sort of childish proud grin on her face while looking at the paused frame of the HMS London being crushed by tons of seawater.
The others, however, know that Nicolae is just feeling giddy over their collective brainchild, the Orkan. Nonetheless, Nicolae's caution is taken seriously by them all. Especially more so when Yuki has explicitly stated to never, ever, think about touching the topic of developing CBRN weaponry. What Yuki needs is a clean world to rule over, not a dead one. Nuclear fallout can be a bitch to clean up.
Mobius, despite leaning more toward biological miracles, actually contributed a lot to the development of the Orkan torpedo. Yuki, who has been watching the displays of the still ongoing naval action, suddenly raises her hand and pats the mad scientist on her green hair. Her action prompts Mobius to groan comfortably at the head pat Yuki is administering before looking up from her half-finished data sheets in mild confusion.
"A clean, and swift, tactical warhead. The Orkan wouldn't have existed and performed this well if it weren't for Mobius' hand in its development." Yuki wholeheartedly praised the woman, still caressing her hair despite Mobius' blush.
Mobius though, preens at the attention given to her by Yuki. "It wasn't much for a scientist of my caliber. I was only inspired by how those Demon squids move underwater so swiftly, despite their unconventional shapes."
Yuki giggles before teasingly pinching Mobius' right cheek. "A very Mobius response."
Annoyed by the sudden, albeit heartwarmingly pain, Mobius takes a bite at Yuki's mischievous finger, to which the latter just laugh, not feeling any pain. Directing a demanding look at Yuki, Mobius says while still holding Yuki's index finger in her mouth. "We demand a reward!"
"Haha~! But of course! Though for now, let's focus on seeing this battle through without any mishap, alright?" Though Yuki said it with a smile, she was soon turned into a blushing mess when Mobius did something unexpected.
The green hair lady starts suckling on Yuki's finger, sensually, like one would do delicious ice cream. With a surprised yelp, Yuki pulls her finger away, leaving behind a trail of saliva connecting to Mobius' lips. "W-Where the Hell did you learn to do that!?"
Mobius smirks before pulling out a box of wet tissues to wipe Yuki's finger and her mouth. "Living with you all is sure to introduce me to new horizons. Never would have thought you could be played into such compromising positions." Though Mobius said it cryptically, Yuki had the mind to know that her sexual escapees sure didn't escape any of the brainiacs here.
Groaning into her palms at the sudden reminder of her submissive lustful tendency, Yuki doesn't know that the others are looking at her with heartwarming gazes. It's always fun to see Yuki delve into the shy gal that is so far apart from her usual confidence when they tease her by pressing the right buttons.
Desperately trying to change the subject, Yuki points at the big screens. "C-Come on! Let's see if Admiral Tallulah can pull through this without breaking a sweat.
They all let out a smile at the obvious attempt, yet they stop, for now. There is still work to be done, after all.
The live footage from the UAVs, still running all the while, is now showing an exchange of cannon fires between Bismarck and Prinz Eugen against their Royal Navy aggressors.
At a range of 18 km and steadily closing deliberately by Bismarck going at cruising speed, the Royal Navy capital ships are now akin to a bull seeing red. Per their plan, HMS Repulse hangs back behind the larger King George V and Rodney, turning her hull broadside to allow her six 381mm guns the needed firing angle. In a vain attempt at covering for her larger compatriots, the battlecruiser's guns start a resounding report amidst the raining Atlantic. Her first salvo is soon followed by two others after two seconds, fired by King George V and Rodney with their A and B turrets. Ranging from dangerous to negligible, a mixture of 406mm, 381mm, and 356mm shells start their descent onto the Bismarck...
To no visible effect whatsoever.
*BRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTT*
Still set on their mission to counter rockets, artillery, and any missile that come close to Bismarck, the Gepard turrets dutifully intercept the salvos from the Home Fleet midair, prioritizing the 406mm shells from the Rodney first and foremost. The aerial detonations make it so that they're bigger, multicolored flak bursts if it isn't for the tracer beams left behind by the 30mm shells. Apparently, the Royal Navy is still using colorful dye in its shell composition. Appreciating the beautiful light show despite the increasingly awful weather, Nicolae and Mobius share an appraising whistle before both look at each other with a snicker.
Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, not leaving that slight against the appointed flagship slide, retaliate almost immediately. The heavy cruiser fires first, surprisingly, and scores direct hits on the bow of the Rodney with her 203mm High Capacity High Explosive shells. Despite not doing much in terms of armor penetrations, the HE shells cause a fire to break out on the bow of the Home Fleet battleship. In a way, the damage is light all things considered. Yet, Prinz Eugen is not stopping there and is already sending her second salvo out. Yuki knows that as the heavy cruiser is attacking a bow-in battleship with nothing but 203mm guns, Prinz Eugen is resorting to stacking enough fires on the Rodney to cripple her damage control and equipment. And seeing that even Eugen's secondary turrets are chiming in, firing at the Rodney at a ridiculous rate of fire, Yuki's guess is affirmed almost immediately when another fire appears just shy of a secondary turret of the Rodney. This burning situation is exacerbated by the secondaries from Bismarck joining in the arsonist effort. Very soon, Rodney will be too busy coughing up smoke to even do anything.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Bismarck, on the other hand, isn't having any reservations about how to engage her current target, the broadsiding HMS Repulse. As if waving away a mere bug that caught her windshield, Bismarck retaliates with a full salvo of her twelve 432mm guns. Once again, the water in the vicinity of her broadside seems to evaporate as the shockwave pushes outward, left behind by the super-heavy shells that streak across the air. Despite knowing the danger the Bismarck possess, vessels of the Home Fleet, or any other naval power in this era, do not have any sort of defense against incoming projectiles. As such, the antiquated hull of Repulse now bears the full brunt of five shells biting into her thin broadside armor, while the others landed and exploded either below her water line, causing water leaks, or fragmented into a metallic shower above the surface. Whatever the damaging effect may be, however, doesn't change the fact that HMS Repulse has been slapped, hard, much like what Admiral John Tovey of the Home Fleet has feared.
Of the five shells that penetrated Repulse's armor, one over-penetrated the aft of the vessel, coming through to the other end before exploding. The other fours are more fortunate, to Bismarck's gunnery stations, and unlucky, for the Repulse's crew. Of the four, one blows up at the foundation of the conning tower, the excessive blast immediately causes a cave-in of the bridge, killing almost everyone in it. Those that are most unfortunate to survive the collapse though, face the fate of being roasted alive due to the ensuing fire from the shell after falling down heavily into the lower deck. The other three shells go off alongside the length of Repulse's broadside. One literally blows the top off the C-turret while another detonates the magazine of the rear secondary turret of Repulse. Accompanied by the ammo cook-off from the rear turret, the last shell, having penetrated the main armor belt and into the engine compartment, explodes. The blast completely tears up the armor belt of Repulse by her waterline, creating a gaping hole more than ten meters in length from the look of it. With the large wound, seawater is now rushing in to fill the void, choking the heavily injured battlecruiser in her literal beating heart.
Seeing that Repulse is dead in the water with no hope of retaliating, Bismarck swiftly swings its turrets about, her slowly raise up one by one to signify their loaded status.
Trudging on despite the catastrophic losses they incurred so far, a testament of will and loyalty, not to the Admiralty, but the Admiral Tovey in command of them, Rodney and King George V unleash their next volley. This time, their shells travel at a slightly shallower arc than before, having closed the distance in the time Bismarck crippled the Repulse. Going at flank speed, King George V approaches the 14 km distance while Rodney is slower, sitting around 16 km.
This doesn't help them at all as six more tracer beams spring into the air, batting away the shells before they even reach a harmful distance. And because they are dealing with a lesser barrage than before, with the Repulse out of the picture, the Gepards have an easier time catching them all despite the reduced reaction time.
King George V, though, having reached the fabled 14 km range, starts turning broadside despite every fiber of Admiral Tovey's being said otherwise. In a vain attempt of doing whatever damage he can, Tovey has every single gun on King George V to fire at will. Has he been able to wade past the suffocating hopelessness that they're all feeling right now, Tovey would have been able to figure out a potential vulnerability in the Belkan defense grid. That is to simultaneously attack with all guns at the same time and make it so that the shells are to land at the same exact moment. A single, overwhelming assault in a split second that can overwhelm the CIWS system the Belkan employ... maybe.
Yet, reality is far different than fiction and what-ifs. Tovey, and by extension the entire Home Fleet, have lost every possible chance to remedy their mistakes. And now, they are forced to pay the price.
HMS Repulse has sounded the evacuation notice due to the flooding and fires she received. The crew is now more busy with deploying lifeboats instead of trying to counteract the heavy listed of the ship to her starboard. HMS Rodney, on the other hand, is not doing so hot. Well, figuratively speaking, of course. She is being lit up like a Christmas tree despite the heavy rain. Her fore fire director has been knocked out by Prinz Eugen a few minutes ago and all stations below deck report fire and smoke coming up everywhere on the ship. Due to the nature of her rushed design when the Royal Navy built her, Rodney is every bit flawed in almost every aspect in an attempt to have a battleship with 406mm guns as her primary. Her speed and protection are compromised, but most important of all, her damage control is woefully lacking against deliberated arson by the Belkan warships. By putting all of her main turrets so closely together in the bow, and their accompanying magazines, Rodney has made it so that when an unstoppable flame engulfs her fore-end, everything will pop up.
When the flame overtakes the damaged bulkheads and armor plates protecting the magazine, it happens. A flash fire appears, then one more, then another, until the entire three magazines for Rodney's 406mm go up in a fiery burst that launches all three of her bow turrets in the air, leaving the holes where they used to be spatting out blue fire columns. It has made for a spectacular sight as momentarily, the entire bow of the Rodney seems to expand outward before fire and smoke seem to spew out of every possible breach in her armor. It's as if she is being cooked alive internally. It doesn't have to be said that at this point in time, Rodney is a lost cause.
Bismarck, as if shocked by the fiery end of an adversary she has just about to end herself, stays stunned for a whole ten seconds with her main guns, loaded, still trained on the burning wreckage of Rodney. Only after that ten seconds does she wakes up and points her turrets at the still bitterly fighting King George V. In utter madness at this point, King George V throws everything they have at Bismarck. This range from the main 356mm guns to the 113mm secondaries, smaller than the formers are the 40mm pom-poms and even infantry firearms. The latter two, of course, are hopelessly outranged and their rounds do not even land anywhere near Bismarck's zip code. To be honest, it's both a commendable and pitiful attempt at a last hurrah performed by Admiral Tovey and his sailors.
Opting to put her defeated nemesis out of her misery, Bismarck fires her main guns, all at once, one last time.