Chapter 13: After the naval Battle
Kingdom of Lauria, Wyvern Headquarters
350 dragon riders were mobilized to engage with the enemy's main fleet. 3 hours have now passed since the last communication with them, which had ended in screaming. There was a heavy silence in the headquarters. Why hadn't they reestablished communications? Furthermore, why hadn't any of the dragon riders come back yet? Everyone was consumed with impatience and nervousness.
"So where are they?"
No one had an answer.
It was unthinkable, but... could they have been wiped out?
Throughout Rodenius's history, the wyvern was always the strongest creature. However, they were also a rare, valuable species, and it was hard to gather a large number of them.Lauria's rookery of 500 came from a combination of building up forces for 6 years and receiving assistance from the Papaldia Empire, with the stipulation that they be used to conquer Rodenius. With their overwhelming strength, it should have been a matter of course for them to take over the continent. Upon sending the 350 dragon riders to deal with the enemy's main forces, this elite squadron should have put on a historically meritorious performance before returning to base.
In reality, so far not a single one had returned. It was extremely painful to consider, but there was a high chance that they had been completely annihilated. Under normal conditions, even against an abnormally large fleet, it should be impossible to take out all 350 dragon riders. Was it possible that their enemies were serving the legendary holy dragon Bahamut? No one knew how to report this to King Lauria.
"...tell the advance force that, by emergency order, the dragon rider order requests that half of their dragon riders return to headquarters."
As the order was giving,a lookout shouted.
''Enemy Wyverns from all directions! counting...Over...300!''Shouted the Lookout
''what!''shouted the Room
As they looked outside they saw 280 German Planes,130 Stukas and 150 HE-111-H-16 as they flew over the city the HE-111-H-16s dropped their bombs and the Stukas dived straight into the city to drop their payload,they had light loads as they had finished dropping some loads onto some farms and towns nearby. The siren of the Stukas made everyone run in terror as the bombs hit,in massive explosions buildings were reduced to ash and fires broke out,It was utter chaos,the flames were only stopped when rain began after the Germans left,to the people,they were left in fear to how easily they were attacked and how they were left defenseless,in a single day 100 000 people of 850 000 were killed,and over 66% of the city was reduced to rubble. War had arrived to Jin-Hark and with it the Fall of lauria would come.
Central Calendar year 1639, April 8th, Principality of Kua Toine, governmental meeting
"This concludes the report on the large naval battle in Rodenius's waters."
Officer Breweye, who had observed the battle, was invited to the meeting to give the report and serve as reference. All other attendees had in their hands printed copies of the battle report. The room was completely silent.
"So, what kind of report is this exactly? Germany sent out only 2 ships of which only 1 saw combat, challenged Lauria's fleet of 4400, then actually sunk all but 100 of them? On top of that, they destroyed 350 dragon riders and but turned them all into mincemeat? And on top of that, the ship suffered no casualties? It's written here 'personnel loss: zero.' No one died?! And let me just add that our fleet sat around doing nothing. If you told me that this was a fairy tale, I'd have said 'no, this is far too outlandish for a fairy tale!' I don't want to accuse a navy officer of coming to a state meeting and deliberately lying his ass off, but you need to at least keep your story grounded in reality and not give us this pile of fantasy horse shit.and this last thing:took over a port without a single shot fired,you mean to tell me they took a major port of Lauria with a single ship? that is false! it has to be"
Everyone thought pretty much the same; the observer's report was that unbelievable.
''Bullshit! this has to be a lie!''
''Fuck you liar!''
People started lobbing insults around. By all rights, repelling Lauria's invasion and alleviating some of the national crisis should be cause for celebration, but this battle report was just so absurd that it actually raised people's fears instead. Prime Minister Kanata motioned for silence and made to speak.
"In any case, the naval invasion was stopped this time. While there are still 100 enemy ships at large, even if the reinforcement ships were to be lost,we can now beat them with our new ships.Does the Ministry of Military Affairs have any news on the ground war?"
"Currently,Lauria has begun construction in the area around Gim. After the failure of the naval invasion, we believe they are strengthening Gim's defenses in order to resume their ground invasion. That being the case, we have determined that any strategies to break through their defense lines are no longer viable,on a side note,Germany has claimed that they 88 000 men in Gim and the 44 000 in their capital are trapped by their forces that have now control over the nation,in other words in just 3 days they took all but their Capital and Gim" the minister reported."With regards to Germany near Ejey,they have said they are ready to begin the counterattack whenever they attack"
''amazing! they have saved us once more! soon this crisis will be over''said Kanata
Kua Toine was happy to have Germany to help them in this war,Kanata was a vocal ally for Pro-German policy While there was some opposition, everyone there understood that they couldn't fight Lauria without Germany's assistance. They also knew that in the worst case Germany could betray them later, but they had no choice at this point.
Kingdom of lauria, royal capital Jin Hark, Castle Hark
The 34th king of the Laurian Kingdom, 34-year-old Hark Lauria, shivered in bed. Yesterday some weird machines appeared in the skies and attacked them,in the attack most of his capital was burned to the ground and 100 000 were killed,He was unable to fathom what exactly was opposing his country.Was it a god like nation? No it must be a devil,and worse was when he can't contact the nation,no response nothing,it was if the entire nation fell in the boots of the enemy,but who could do that in 3 days? Lauria always had a large population, but the quality of its people was subpar. Over the last 6 years of preparation, they were able gloss over the poor quality with overwhelming numbers. But now, they discovered that their quality was still not enough. Aerial and naval battles depend on quality of ships and wyverns and equipment, but ground battles depend more on quantity. Perhaps the ground invasion could still work out...If he could contact them. The king passed a restless night without sleep.
Third Civilization, Papaldia Empire
In a dim room, a light spirit in a glass sphere glowed orange, casting shadows inside the room. There were two men discussing the country's future.
"...the German Empire? That's not a name familiar to us..."
"They're an nation to the northeast of Rodenius."
"We have read the reports, we am aware, but was there always a country there? What we mean to say is, they're supposedly 1000 kilometers away from Rodenius, but we cannot imagine that no one in our history has ever realized that a country was there."
"That part of the ocean has dangerous currents and erratic winds, so it's hard to navigate by ship. Without being able to investigate the area closely, isn't it possible that it was missed? we could send the new Dios III to investigate?"
"Perhaps, but these are uncivilized lands and that could lead to disater if we lose that ship to them. While Lauria has especially weak naval warfare, for only 1 enemy ship and 50 ''Iron objets'' to be capable of sinking 4300, isn't that just preposterous? Moreover, their cannons supposedly scored hits from over 30Km away. Maybe the observer's long life outside the zones has compromised his analysis. We should consider installing a new observer."
"Please consider, Your Excellency by do know that he is the best we have so maybe take his word should it be true.But regardless Our 100-gun warship, the Fissennuss,or the Dios III could face that Laurian fleet and emerge unscathed. It is capable of sinking Lauria's ships from a distance of 2 to 4 kilometers with its main cannon without needing to pause depending on the model, so those results aren't completely unbelievable. In any case, I don't know how many hundreds of ships this German Empire actually deployed, but we should at least take away from this that they are advanced enough to be building cannons.They are most likely a small or moderate threat to us"
"The barbarians are making cannons now...in light of the fact that they have yet to invade Rodenius, perhaps it is appropriate to consider that their technology has just become capable of producing cannons but let us not think they are weak,if they have gunboats they must have muskets,we should be wary."
"yes,we must be vigilant.By the way,Lauria can't possibly fail, could they? If they do, that would hinder our national resource acquisition stratagem."
"Unlike naval warfare, ground warfare relies on numbers. If nothing else,Lauria has a large population, so they won't lose against an enemy with few cannons."
"Indeed, this battle report was truly outlandish,we should seek the facts before we act to this new enemy. For the next report, I will not bring it to Your Excellency until I have thoroughly vetted the information to be only the truth. Please entrust me with this task."
Papaldia had found a new challenger,and now the Geo-Political situation would change forever.
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