European Coalition (6)
Just as a horde of jet-black warships came swarming over the horizon, Haneul picked up the microphone.
It was the ship's broadcast system, wired to speakers scattered everywhere — outside the hull and throughout the decks.
"Ahem. It's me. Can you hear me?"
"Yes! Loud and clear!"
At Haneul's single remark, a roar erupted louder than the rumble of the ship's engines.
"Great answer! Today, we will not budge a single step from this spot. To those fools daring to challenge us, let's rain down fire from the heavens."
"Haneul-nim is watching! Everyone, prepare!"
"Blow them to pieces as they come!"
"Actually, just start firing now!"
「BOOM BOOM」
The Cheongsang-eo carried ten twin-gun turrets in total — three mounted at the bow, four amidships, and three at the stern.
With no radar or anything of the sort, they only fired at ranges visible to the naked eye, so the barrels weren't especially long.
Rather modest, actually — it even looked a bit cute.
"Hah! So close! It landed right next to it!"
"Hurry up with the reload!"
「VRRRMMMM」
When the soldier seated in the chair pressed the button while peering through the telescope to aim, the turret began to pivot little by little.
Incredibly, they had fitted motors to the turrets so they could be turned at the press of a button.
"Shell coming down!"
「CLATTER CLATTER」
Then two men pulled out the spent casing and sent it back down to the magazine.
「CLUNK — CHUNK」
"Reload complete!"
Next, the loaders snatched a fresh shell from the hoist beside them, rammed it into the breech, and slammed it shut. These were the gun crews.
"Shell coming down!"
"You two keep the shells coming! I'll handle the casings!"
And just below, in the magazine, three men worked together sorting casings and hoisting shells up one after another.
Before them, an enormous mountain of shells was stacked neatly, row upon row.
No longer did anyone have to run back and forth through the magazine lugging shells by hand!
「BOOM」
"Oh! Sunk!"
They opened fire the very moment the enemy appeared on the far horizon, and there were so many ships that they sank some without even trying.
A recoil damping mechanism, plus a barrel cooling system.
「BOOM BOOM」
Cheongsang-eo No. 1 began firing faster and faster as the enemy drew near.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
「CLUNK — CHUNK」
"Reload complete!"
Snatching a shell from the hoist beside them and rolling the spent casing down below, the loaders were practically dying on their feet.
"Whew! I'm dead. Swap! Now!"
"Hey! Wait, I'm coming up!"
And with that, they traded places with the soldier hauling shells up from below.
Feeding shells into the hoist turned out to be easier work than expected.
「BOOM BOOM」
"Oh! Thirty-two!"
"You jerk! Is this fun for you? I'm dying over here!"
"Who said you could lose, huh?"
"Grrr!"
The six of them had divided the duties fairly — well, by drawing cards, anyway...
The Cheongsang-eo poured out shells from long range.
The guns produced little smoke, and thanks to the recoil dampers and small bores, there was almost no kick at all.
As the enemy ships closed in and aiming grew familiar, the hit rate climbed noticeably.
「BOOM!」
"Oh! Three in a row! Sunk!"
Out in the distance, wooden ships were exploding, but the noise was drowned out entirely by their own guns — nothing could be heard at all. Inside the turret, the tension faded away entirely. It almost felt like a game.
Vice Admiral Francis Drake, commander of the English privateer fleet.
These days he ignored even the Queen's words, plundering as he pleased, and fearing his knighthood might soon be stripped away, he had thrown himself into this expedition.
They say Daehan is positively overflowing with gold...
He had heard the rumors well enough, and he intended to expand his operations toward Daehan's coast.
That was why he had joined this battle, leading his men. Somewhere along the way, he'd somehow ended up as admiral of the English fleet, though.
"With this many ships, what's there to command? Just sail forward, fire the cannons, and everything will sink."
He thought nothing of it and sent his ships out into the sea on schedule.
Then, after sailing for a good while, they spotted a single ship floating on the water.
"What the hell? What's that thing doing, floating there all alone and bold as brass?"
He was a little bewildered. As far as he knew, over a thousand ships had been mobilized.
"But how big is it? The moment it appeared on the horizon, it was already bigger than a thumbnail?"
Given that even ordinary ships looked barely larger than a dot when they first crested the horizon, there was no gauging how enormous this one actually was.
Still, it was only one ship, and deciding his confidence was warranted, Drake kept driving the fleet onward.
「BOOM! — FWOOOOOSH!」
"What was that? Was that not the sound of a cannonball flying?"
"It's a shell!"
"Idiots, what's all the fuss? Nothing could hit us at this range."
Uneasy as he was, he scolded his men. Who ever heard of lunatics firing cannons the instant something appeared on the horizon?
「BOOM! — CRACK! — KRAKAKOOM!」
"AAAAGH!"
"Ugh..."
At least, until the ship beside him, battered and blazing, blew apart.
"What?"
Something utterly beyond common sense was happening.
「BOOM! — CRACK!」
"There's a hole in the ship!"
"Plug it, quickly!"
It was a bolt from the blue.
「SPLASH SPLASH」
"Cannons can throw shells this far? And hit, no less?"
Plenty of shells still splashed harmlessly into the sea — but quite a few found their mark, too.
「CRACK! KRAKAKOOM! CRACK!」
"AAAAH! The shells are exploding!"
"Hide somewhere! Hurry!"
Perhaps fortunately, the shells' bores were so small that a ship had to be struck many times before it went down.
「KRAKOOM!」
"GRAAAAGH!"
The real problem was what happened when a shell landed on deck — men died left and right, their bodies riddled with holes.
"We have to go faster!"
"Row! Row, damn you!"
"Galleys, forward first!"
The fleet's backbone was its armored ships, but they were far too slow. Even the fastest galleys would have to go ahead first.
Drake held his tongue, and the galleys surged ahead, oars churning the water —
「KRRAKA-BOOM」
"Gack..."
— and the galleys rushing forward began taking shell after shell.
"This? What am I even supposed to do?"
The enemy ship was visible now — another ten or twenty minutes of sailing and they'd be there. But that distance looked impossibly far.
"And for all that firing, why is there no smoke?"
One more oddity: so little gunsmoke. The only smoke at all rose from that tall pillar — a black-and-white column churning into the sky.
「KUWAAANG」
"Hah!"
A deafening explosion jolted him out of his daze.
Right nearby, a powder magazine had gone up, and the ship had been blown clean out of the water.
"We're almost there! Increase speed!"
"How are we supposed to go faster than this!"
Fair point — but even shouting seemed to make them move a little faster. How could anyone not be terrified?
The enemy was raining down this many shells, and they still hadn't landed a single proper blow of their own.
"Wait a moment. Now that I think of it — they're firing without even turning the ship?"
It was standard practice for warships to show their broadside when firing, with few exceptions.
Even the Whale Shark class followed that rule.
But the Cheongsang-eo's three bow turrets and three stern turrets were stacked in tiers, allowing fire in every direction.
"Madness? Those round things are cannons?"
As they drew closer, the round shapes — faintly venting gunsmoke — could be seen swiveling round and round.
「BOOM BOOM — CRACK — KRAKAKOOM」
And the closer they got, the faster the ships began to blow apart. As they approached firing range, he began to worry: how many ships would even be left by the time they could return fire?
Trailing countless fragments of shattered ships behind them, the vanguard finally entered cannon range.
"Good! Now we turn broadside and begin the bombardment!"
"All ships, come about!"
"Turn in order!"
One after another they wheeled their sides toward the Cheongsang-eo, laid their guns, and opened fire.
「KRUKUKUKU-KOOM KRUKUKUKU-KOOM」
"That's it! That's the way!"
With so many ships firing at once, smoke billowed across the surrounding sea in an instant, as if a smoke bomb had gone off.
Then, over the reek of acrid powder smoke, a strange sound reached the ears of Francis Drake, who was shouting himself hoarse with excitement.
「KA-KANG KA-KANG KANG — WHACK — KANG」
"What's that? Did the shells collide with each other or something?"
Time passed. The smoke thinned, and the Cheongsang-eo's silhouette began to emerge.
He had felt a flicker of fear at the sheer size of the ship as it drew near — but on the other hand, wouldn't that make it easier to hit? Francis Drake had been imagining an enemy hull punched full of holes.
"Hah..."
His jaw dropped as if it would hit the deck.
The Cheongsang-eo was utterly unscathed. And those round cannons, for some reason, seemed to be rotating to track his ship.
「BOOM」
"What the fu—!?"
He knew before the shells even hit. He was the target. With barely any gunsmoke, it felt like running into a ghost ship.
「KRAK! — CRACK! — CRACK!」
One shell burst on the deck. The other punched clean through the hull and detonated below.
Beneath the deck lay the place where powder was stockpiled for the guns.
「GUWAAAAANG!」
And with that explosion, the English navy's Francis Drake — a man who had made his name as a pirate — met his end.
"Uh... uhh..."
"What's wrong?"
"Haneul-nim, the enemy ships keep getting closer!"
"They have a job to do too, don't they?"
They'd have to close in before they could fire their cannons and mount any kind of attack. Why was she asking about something so obvious?
"Now they're circling our ship like a school of sharks!"
"Yeah. That's because they want to fire their cannons."
"What?"
Why even ask? The cannons were mounted on the sides — naturally they had to turn broadside if they wanted to hit anything.
「KRUKUKUKU-KRAKOOM」
Whoa. With this many ships, the cannon fire sounded like machine-gun bursts.
"There they go."
"KYAAAAAH!"
"We'll be fine."
This ship's armor couldn't be pierced by cast-iron cannonballs. Worrying about it was just her nature, apparently...
「KANG! KA-KANG! KANG! KA-KA-KA-KANG!」
"AAAAAGH!"
"What is this?!"
"GRAAAH!"
"Insane!"
Right — this was the thing to worry about. Not the armor being pierced. Eardrums bursting.
God... the sound of cannonballs slamming against the armor was absolutely unhinged.
"AAAGH! It's too loud! Hurry up and shoot, you idiots!"
Taking too much of this was bad for one's mental health.
Those bastards needed to be sunk, and fast.
"Snap out of it and fire faster!"
She shouted into the microphone, though she found herself worrying whether anyone's ears were still intact.
「BOOM — BOOM — BOOM — BOOM」
"Fire! Yes! That's it! Faster!"
Right, she'd heard about this somewhere. Tank warfare — even when a shell bounced off the armor, the crew inside could be killed by the impact alone.
Having seen it today, she believed it. This could genuinely kill people.
「KRRAKA-BOOM KRUKU-KOOM」
"No! More incoming! Cover your ears!"
Bastards, stop firing! The shells aren't getting through!
「KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KANG!」
"KYAAAAAAAH!"
This is insane! Even with my ears covered it's getting through! Better to take a shell and pass out!
"GRAAAH! Save me!"
"I think my ears are bleeding!"
「THUD THUD」
Wow. The kids were collapsing and staggering all over the place. Mose had long since flopped lifeless into a corner.
"Come on, hang in there! The faster we sink them, the faster this suffering ends!"
It was torture, plain and simple. Like being locked inside a giant bell and having it pounded from outside — this was probably exactly what that felt like.
There was nothing to do but endure.
All she could do was hope they'd smash those ships to pieces soon.
「BOOM BOOM BOOM」
For some reason, the kids somehow seemed to be firing at a ferociously accelerating pace.
「CRACK KRAKAKOOM CRACK KUWAAAANG」
"That's the spirit!"
Enemy ships were sinking and even setting off secondary explosions. It made for quite a spectacle.
This coalition fleet included a good number of galleys. Their purpose was to board the enemy ship and fight hand-to-hand.
「CLANK CLANK」
"Sniff... I'm scared..."
"Please, just let us run away."
"Spare us, please."
"Shut up and row!"
Some of the galleys were packed to the brim with slaves, whipped as they pulled the oars — and beside them, powder barrels filled every empty space.
Mixed in among them were cannonballs. The masters had but one aim: the same self-destruction trick they had pulled off at Venice.
"Please untie me!"
"Urk!"
「CRACK — CRACK」
Ordinary sailors or soldiers would never take the oars of a ship packed with powder, so the holds were filled with slaves instead.
And of course, under the merciless lash, the lower decks were caked in blood.
Galley after galley like this — rowed by slaves — still lay hidden in the fleet's ranks. Truly, it was an age of barbarism.