If soone were to sail into Sauda Bay right at this mont, the first impression would be one of profound calm, clear skies overhead and sunlight glinting off an empty, undisturbed sea, especially in the absence of rchant traffic. Yet a glance toward the coastline, particularly the northern mouth of the bay, would reveal the truth beneath that serenity. A tense confrontation was taking shape. And even temporary bastions were being erected along the port, solid signs that what lood ahead was not a minor skirmish, but a war to the death.
Surya Selvam curled his beard upward and brought the telescope to his eyes, inspecting the situation of the Italians. ’ What are you up to? ’ Surya was brave by nature, so despite facing the entire Italian fleet, he did not feel worried at all. Arguably, that is also why, despite his various achievents, he could not be promoted because of his bravery. He sotis made reckless decisions that could have been entirely avoided, but fortunately or unfortunately, that exact sa personality of his allowed him to stand his ground and not lose his marbles.
Surya Selvam took his eyes away from the telescope and furrowed his brows. One of the battleships that was stranded was pulled back manually, but the other battleship was left in place, and oddly enough, everyone was evacuating the ship.
"What do you think they are doing? " Surya asked as he passed the telescope to his executive officer. A few seconds later, his executive officer corrected his spectacles and looked at the captain. "It’s only a guess, but I think they are going to completely sink the ship in order to make way for the rest of the fleet to enter."
Surya was surprised. "Are you sure?" He found it hard to believe, "Although it’s not a Delhi-class battleship, it’s still a battleship. "
His executive officer touched the bridge of his nose and nodded without hesitation. " The Italians know that the reinforcents are on their way. They obviously cannot give us an opportunity to counterattack, especially since we have the strategic advantage, so they are most probably sacrificing the Venezia Class Battleship in order to make way for the fleet." Thinking about it, he added, " If it were , I would do the sa. "
Surya was silenced. No way to argue against that logic, but then again, he ca to a realisation. It would be the port side of his battleship, frigates, and clippers that would be coming into the direct sight of the enemy fleet. Isn’t taking on the enemy like this practically suicide?
He thought about it deeply and ca up with a preliminary idea of what to do.
"Turn the ship around, then position frigates and clippers, both heavy and light, right next to Ujwal (The Battleship). "
"We are going to form our own miniature killing field; let’s choke these bastards at the Strait. "
The executive officer’s eyes lit up, but they suddenly dimd. Although the plan sounded nice, since they had the advantage in firepower, unfortunately, this advantage was only in terms of power and range. In close-quarters combat, like the one they were about to face currently, the upper hand was not too high. At the sa ti, he did not refuse the order either, especially not when he could not think of anything better. ’At least we will only have to deal with one or two battleships at the sa ti,’ he comforted himself.
All these thoughts were but a mont. The executive officer nodded and relayed the orders to the rest of the ships in the Battle Group, as well as informing the senior captain, Amarinder Prasad.
Armata Federazione Italiana.
Supre Commander Marco Antonio Giustiniani was slightly disappointed that the Bharatiyas did not take the bait, but deep in his heart, he knew they would not take it either. Although the Bharatiyas invited Spanish and Portuguese teachers during the formation of their navy to teach them battle tactics, the Bharatiyas have co a long way in terms of military strategy. They are no longer inferior to the naval heritage nations of Europe. In fact, they even have their own style of battle that only exists in so of the older and more established navies of Europe.
Which is why he ordered for the Venezia class battleship to be quickly sunk. For one, the ship was already extensively damaged, and it did not even use the compartntalisation technology of the Bharatiya Empire, making its repairs expensive and hard. Not to ntion, in order to pull the ship back, all the water, or at least most of it, had to be drained, the damage had to be patched so that the water did not flood anymore, and then two or three frigates had to be deployed in order to pull the ship out. Instead of wasting so much ti, which was the most expensive commodity right now, better to sink the ship and be done with it.
He stood on the deck with his hands behind his back, his gown fluttering in the wind, as he gazed at the Venezia Class Battleship they had built, struggling to stay afloat. Looking at such a miserable condition, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
’The Bharatiya really do know how to build marvellous ships.’ Despite taking a similar amount of damage, the Bharatiya ship was still able to stay afloat without a problem, but the ship made in Italy was barely alive.
Coincidentally, maybe the captains of the Genoa-class frigates felt the contempt of their Supre Commander. They shot at the Venezia Class Battleship right at that mont, exacerbating its death.
Looking at the sinking ship, Marco nodded in satisfaction, but his attention was imdiately attracted by his second in command, Vice Ammiraglio Francisco Cianci.
"Commander, the battle group in the North is reorganising the position into a direct suppression formation."
Hearing the news, Marco’s brow furrowed, but then it quickly relaxed. "Heh," he sneered, "do they think that they can take on our fleet head-on? I admit they have better equipnt, but they are overestimating themselves if they think they can choke us in the Strait."
"Aren’t the Bharatiyas very proud of their ships? Then use their own ships to defeat them. Send in three Delhi-class battleships at a ti. Let them absorb the damage. These ships are really difficult to sink anyway. We can always repair them as long as they do not break in half. Right behind the Delhi class, send in four Venezia Class Battleships and Roma class heavy frigates."
"There’s no need to worry about defence. Unload the entire firepower, let’s blast a hole through the so-called blockade."
Bharatiya Crete Battle Group.
Amarinder Prasad was not completely confident about the strategy of Surya, but he did not have any other alternative either; he could only stare at the north through the telescope with a hint of worry.
Back at the North Coast, Surya Selvam widened his eyes as he actually saw three Delhi-class battleships approaching from the end of the strait.
"CURSED BASTARDS."
He spat on the ground viciously. How could he not understand the vicious plan of the Italians, but even if he did understand, what could he do? It’s not like he could magically transport behind the fleet and counterattack, and even if he could, with only one battleship, six heavy 800-tonne warships, frigates and clippers combined, and nine 200-tonne light warships, clippers and frigates combined, he would be counterattacked and destroyed before he could see what hit him.
In the end, he could only place the burden on his fate and ordered everyone to try their best.
"Attack with everything you got."
His executive officer, looking at the approaching Bharatiya ships, felt complicated, but then he let out a deep and turbulent breath and relayed the captain’s orders.
The Italians were the first to co into the range of the Bharatiya naval cannons, so without hesitation, the rampage began.
"BOOOM."
The primary and secondary batteries, composed of muzzle-loading naval guns and rifled breech-loading guns, fired in unison, starting the carnage.
The projectiles cut through the air like a hot knife through butter and blasted into the Delhi class battleships approaching the end of the strait.
Screams and shouts were imdiately heard, and the first bombardnt drew blood.
"Reload and hit it again."
Surya Selvam roared as he punched the air with great intensity. His sailors shared his intensity and fervour. Their eyes were blazing hot as they didn’t utter a word and worked like literal machines, precise to a millisecond, with no wasted movents.
"Clear."
"BOOOM."
The second round of artillery fire swept into the sky, coming down on the Italian Delhi-class ships like raining hellfire, making the sailors run around in panic, lest it hit them on the head and break them into pieces.
Right at this mont, the heavy frigates and clippers started to play their role.
They went forward and sailed fast by, continuously firing at the enemy ships.
The light warships refused to be outdone. They were like annoying bugs, getting closer to the enemy battleships and surgically aiming at the hull and critical positions.
The entire northern battle group looked like an impenetrable bastion, with suppression and blanket bombing style attacks coming in from 180 degrees.
For a mont, as the gunpowder perated the air and lead began to drill into the Bharatiya ships of the Italian Navy as if there was no tomorrow, and blood began to spill, the Bharatiya Navy appeared invincible, even making Marco show a troubled look.
Unfortunately, those with real strength do not rely on luck or fate. In the end, almost like a cruel joke, the superior construction quality of the Bharatiya ships beca the greatest obstacle for the northern battle group in Sauda Bay. No matter how relentlessly firepower was poured onto the three battleships built with compartntalisation technology, the bloody things were incredibly hard to sink, continuing to advance despite the damage.
Unless there were gaping holes in the hull and multiple internal breaches, the stubborn ships simply refused to go down. They were not called the ’Undead Monarchs of the East’ for nothing.
After enduring all that punishnt, it was ti to return it. The winds swept into the bay, now favouring them. Even after taking on large amounts of water, the wind still drove the ships forward, and though much of their artillery had been damaged, nearly thirty to forty percent of the guns across all three vessels remained operational.
"Fire!"
The captain, with his head bleeding, growled with a hoarse voice.
"BOOM!"
Ships of the Northern Battle Group occupied the line of Sight. All 180 degrees, there was no need to aim. The Italian batteries were fired in all directions. They fired with the intensity of, as long as it affected the Bharatiya’s aim, it was a win.
With such unrelenting bombing, BNV Ujwal, the Delhi-class battleship, the flagship of the northern battle group, began to take damage, and the heavier frigates and light frigates were no different.
Surya Selvam held onto the deck as the ship shook violently after being hit by a head-sized cannonball.
"Patch up the hole and keep firing!" he roared.
The exchange of firepower was brutal. It was like two heavyweights bashing each other in the face, with blood flying everywhere, but unfortunately, it was not a fair fight to begin with.
Once the Venezia class and the Genoa class warships reached the range they were comfortable with, they unleashed relentless firepower from behind, completely unworried about being counterattacked.
"Boom." "Boom." "Boom." "Boom."
The battle, with the Bharatiya Navy holding dominance at the beginning, went from being equal at the middle stages to being completely crushed in the end.
A young man who led his light clipper out of harm’s way ti and ti again was finally caught off guard, as he did not notice a cannonball that arced high into the sky in an elliptical orbit.
The cannon fell right next to the young man, its force not only exploding the deck but also pushing the young man into the sea.
"Pah!"
He spat out the saltwater by reflex and looked at his shipmates, hoping they could throw him a rope, but just then, he noticed sothing was wrong. His body was getting colder and colder. Looking down, his eyes widened as a splinter had pierced his lungs, making his breathing harder by the mont.
He was desperate, but in the end, he did not even have the strength to move his legs. He slowly sank into the sea, his last remaining strength used to get away from the suffocation, but there was nowhere to go. He rembered the promise he made to his new girlfriend that he would take her back to the Bharatiya Empire and marry her in a grand kshatriya fashion. But now he was plunging deeper and deeper into the sea, things getting darker and darker. The last thing he saw before his consciousness slipped into the abyss was a ship being obliterated without him at its helm, and a bunch of bloodied bodies falling into the sea.
Such things continued to appear on the battlefield, debris appearing everywhere.
Despite everything going according to plan, the worried expression on Marco’s face did not leave him. ’Dealing with a single battle group with only a single battleship was this hard, and nearly four battleships were damaged, and one had to be sunk. What would it take to completely defeat the entire Bharatiya diterranean fleet?’ He asked himself, a seed of uncertainty taking root in his heart. He knew that they were not alone, but still, the ferocity of the battle he witnessed left him doubting the decision of the Federal Emperor.
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