New Weapon Experiment (2)
The South’s overwhelming growth had changed a great many things.
The fundamental scale of its economy had transformed, wasteful spending had dwindled, and businesses and factories had been optimized. Naturally, the volume of Southern exports had soared skyward as well.
And more than eighty percent of those soaring exports traveled by ship—to the Imperial heartland and overseas. To the pirates, it was bait they simply could not pass up.
They might not be able to touch the occasional massive freighters of tens of thousands of tons, but the sailing ships still plying the routes made easy prey.
“The Age of Great Piracy begins!”
Boldly declaring the dawn of a great pirate age, they raised their black flags and put to sea without the faintest notion of fear.
“Southerners? Bah, those bastards are busy fighting the West these days. No way they’ve got the strength left to care about this side of things.”
The number of pirate attacks climbed by the day.
At the head of that wave sailed the Black Flag Pirates.
A crew that succeeded in dozens of raids in a single year. With the profits from those plunderings they had expanded their ships, recruited new hands, and before long formed a proper force.
They commanded a real fleet, mages, and even a unit of undersea monsters—crude by Eastern standards, but functional enough. No one on the Southern seas could stand against them.
“With our strength, even the Southern regular navy wouldn’t dare touch us lightly. You can rest easy in our hideout.”
“Hahaha! That’s our boss for you!”
In truth, the claim was not entirely wrong.
The damage inflicted by the pirates had remained lower than the cost of a full suppression campaign, so pirate hunting had been pushed far down the priority list until now.
What finally drew the South’s gaze was something else entirely.
“The South crushed the West in a week?”
When the pirate captain learned that fact, he became keenly interested in the South’s new weapons.
Guns and cannons.
How much stronger would they become if they could get their hands on the weapons that had overwhelmed every foe?
Pirates never could restrain their hunger for power.
“We’ve got plenty of coin, don’t we? Smuggle us a few pieces. Let’s try them out.”
“Yes, Boss!”
That hunger soon proved to be the worst possible choice.
No matter how discreetly the pirates moved, they could not escape the eyes of the Southern Grand Ducal House, which operated a modern intelligence service.
The Southern Intelligence Bureau held complete authority over information control within the region. The surveillance net it had cast over strategic materials was tight and thorough.
Bang—!
The smugglers attempting the transfer were seized the moment they tried to hand over the weapons, overwhelmed by mysterious men in suits who struck without warning.
“W-who the hell are you!?”
“Intelligence Bureau. You would do well to tell us, in full and without omission, where you intended to smuggle these weapons.”
“And if I refuse?”
The suited agent did not waste words.
He simply clapped twice, summoning the agents around him.
“Boys, this gentleman says he’d like some soup.”
At first the smugglers had no idea what that meant.
Not until they were forced to drink soup through their noses in the basement of the Southern Grand Ducal Castle.
“I-I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! Please, spare me!”
And so the smugglers spilled every scrap of information they possessed.
When the report reached Southern Grand Duke Kyle Leopold, he answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“The smuggling of strategic materials is a grave crime that can undermine the very foundation of our South. Execute every last smuggler and wipe out every soul who dared attempt it.”
That was the moment the once-thriving pirate crew was selected as the target for the experiment.
“An excellent enemy for testing our new submarine force.”
And Southern vengeance did not take long to arrive.
White trails of foam sliced through the dawn sea, smashing the outer wall of the pirates’ hideout and shattering the peaceful morning quiet.
“Enemy attack!”
Panicked pirate voices thundered through the quiet dawn hideout.
Pirate ships lined up along the docks scrambled into motion, while riders of the undersea monsters hastily mounted their saddles beneath the waves.
At first they were all full of confidence.
Whatever anyone said, the Black Flag Pirates ruled the Southern seas.
No one alive would dare smash the walls of their hideout and simply flee.
Six sailing ships raised their pirate flags high, spread their sails wide, and boldly put to sea.
Possessing the finest seamanship on the Southern waters, they believed they would find the enemy in no time.
…At least until thirty minutes had passed.
“There’s nothing out here, Captain?”
The morning sea remained utterly still.
As if the massive explosion that had shattered the dawn quiet and rocked the hideout had been nothing but a lie.
The cold water simply flowed on, calm and indifferent.
“Keep looking anyway! Find them, damn you!”
Even so, the pirates could not withdraw.
Pirates lived by their reputation. Only when everyone feared them could they plunder in comfort.
That was why they could never, under any circumstances, tolerate a hit-and-run strike.
If such incidents continued, the lofty name of the Black Flag Pirates would eventually crumble.
“If you let them get away without finding them, I’ll kill you myself!”
Thus every captain hunted for the enemy with bloodshot eyes.
“They’ve taken the bait.”
To the submarine fleet hidden beneath the waves, that behavior was nothing but a golden opportunity.
Inside the silent hull, where even the sound of swallowing was forbidden, the operations officer carefully asked the captain,
“Shall we begin the hunt?”
“No. Not yet.”
Captain Ethan of the U-7 raised a hand, cutting the officer off.
The enemy surface ships had not yet entered the ambush zone.
“I can feel the lack of experience in our submarine force all too keenly.”
Ethan was one of the finest officers in the South—trusted enough to be given command of an early-model experimental submarine.
That was why he had recognized at a glance just how effective the submarine tactics Kyle Leopold had proposed truly were.
“If only we could use that tactic, we could move aggressively without needing an ambush like this.”
Wolfpack.
A tactic in which submarines hid like a pack of wolves; while one boat struck a chosen target and withdrew, another struck from behind.
The moment he saw the detailed doctrine, Ethan instinctively knew this was the goal every submarine unit should pursue.
At the same time, he understood just how much crew proficiency such perfect coordination demanded.
“Now the enemy has entered the encirclement.”
Ethan clicked his tongue with mild regret and gave the order.
“Commence the attack.”
Hoping that before the naval showdown with the East arrived, they would escape these basic, passive ambushes and master the Wolfpack doctrine completely.
Rumble—!
Compressed air exploded inside the torpedo tubes, and two torpedoes slipped silently toward the surface.
Whether Captain Ethan of the U-7 felt regret or not, the torpedoes displayed their power to perfection.
Boom—!
A large pirate sailing ship mounting a combined thirty-six guns on both sides vanished into a towering spray of water.
There was no time to see it coming, no time to react. It happened in an instant. Even the finest captain had no ability to detect an attack he could not see.
“What the hell was that!?”
“Captain! Our flagship…!”
When the spray settled, the end of the flagship was horrific.
The hull itself had been cleanly broken in two; the two halves sank separately while the pirates’ screams alone echoed across the sea.
“W-what…!”
Every pirate captain present shared a single thought.
I have to live.
They had spent decades on the sea.
They had witnessed countless mysteries of the ocean, yet never once had they heard of anything that could shatter a ship without the slightest warning.
The captain coldly ignored the pirates screaming for mercy and gave the order.
“Run! Our lives come first! Turn the ship around at once and—”
Kra-boom—!
Another explosion erupted.
Two more of the thirty-six-gun sailing ships that formed the backbone of Southern pirate power sank on the spot.
The remaining vessels frantically changed course, but it was already far too late.
The moment the sea’s silent hunters revealed themselves…
Kra-boom—!
…meant that countless other submarines had already fired their torpedoes at the sailing ships.
A short while later.
The last thing the pirates thrashing among the wreckage saw was a massive steel bulk rising through the now-calm surface.
Beginning with the 88 mm deck gun mounted on the U-7, the surfaced submarines began the complete annihilation of the surviving pirates.
“Captain, the enemy’s undersea monster unit will reach this area soon. Shall we destroy them as well?”
Captain Ethan of the U-7 gave a small shake of his head.
Their mission was limited to destroying the sailing ships and executing the ambush.
“No. We withdraw from here.”
Allies who would deal with the small fry beneath the waves were already descending from the sky.
“We should also give the newly joined knights a chance to practice for the decisive battle against the East.”
With the bright morning sun at their backs, thirty refurbished wyvern knights joined the waters.