Japan Space-Time Strange Chronicles

Raging Storm of Anti-Ship Missiles

Hi, Kazuhiro Kasami here, and I'm posting the fourth chapter his month after saying three.

I am afraid that you are all in a depressed mood due to the self-restraint in going out, and I happened to be on a writing spree this month, so I was able to create quite a stock of chapters. So I will post another chapter.

It's finally the war episode.

And by the way, it's a bit more this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March 1, 2027

1.500 km east of Japan, MSDF 1st Escort Group

A fleet of sleek gray-painted vessels was sailing across the ocean. Among them was a ship with a huge flat deck.

It was the Akagi, Japan's first true aircraft carrier, the aircraft destroyer. Its shape was very similar to that of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, but instead of the steam catapult used in the Nimitz, it used an electromagnetic catapult, which was being researched in Japan based on the principles of linear motor cars.

The USFJ had never conducted training using this electromagnetic catapult, so the Japanese taught themselves how to use it by using the T-8 trainer, which was a modified version of the T-4 for carrier-based use. When the USFJ personnel saw the Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel who succeeded in landing on the ship in one shot, which is also known as a 'controlled crash', they couldn't help but think, "WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE!? ONE AND SHOT!? ONE SHOT IS NOT OKAY!" like a certain comedian, maybe...

On the deck of the carrier is a line of Japan's most advanced stealth fighters, the F-3Cs.

Including those on the deck, there are 70 combat-capable aircraft, one Kawasaki Heavy Industries E-1 early-warning aircraft, modified from the Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye, two SH-60K anti-submarine patrol helicopters, one UH-60K carrier-borne search-and-rescue helicopter, and a C-4 transport aircraft modeled after the C-2 transport aircraft used on American carriers and manufactured in Japan by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

On the occasion of this overseas deployment, Japan decided to deploy the Akagi with the Yokosuka-based 1st Escort Group. The reason why the JMSDF took this formation was that they have not been able to organize a strike group for deployment, as various experiments, including overseas exercises, had just been completed.

The Escort Group was commanded by Rear Admiral Katsuragi, as he had been during the previous deployment in the campaign against the Spernino-Italicia coalition. He was on board an Azuchi-class landing ship during the previous deployment, but this time he is in command aboard the Akagi.

Katsuragi was talking to Deputy Commander Ibuki, who stood by his side.

"...I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. To be given the role of taking lives again."

"It can't be helped. After all, they were the ones who initiated the attack first. If we hesitate, their blades will surely head for our ally, Francesca, and then for the Japanese mainland."

He knew that, of course. But it is hard for him, as a Japanese citizen, to have to give orders that could cost lives.

"That being said, where are the ground troops with the 4th Escort Group now?"

This time, the 1st Escort Group whose home port is Yokosuka, was to go to the south of the Neutrine Empire, and the 4th Escort Group from Kure was to go to the north while delivering a part of the ground troops to the Republic of Francesca.

"The plan was to deliver GSDF, who would be joining the Francescan garrison a little later to us, to a Francescan port city. From there, they will head southeast toward the fortified city of Garrard."