Galactic Empire in New World

Part 8 Chapter 8

Point T, 150 km east off Ragna.
0300 hours

The ships of Operation 'Firecracker' of the Mu Empire finally arrived at point T off Ragna at 0200. There, the Mu Empire ships circled at 10 knots to reduce the danger of submarine attack. They had been preparing for the operation since midnight. The pilots had been resting since 8 p.m., and they only got ready at 2.30 p.m. Hence, they had enough time to rest. Moreover, the day before, they were relieved of all duties in order to get more rest.

On the decks of each carrier, there was a tremendous rush to prepare for the departure of the entire complement of fighters and bombers owned by the carriers. Since they would temporarily attack in the dark, which made dogfighting impossible for the Gra Valkas, they did not carry AA missiles. This increases the number of weapons that can be carried. On average, they carry four missiles and one FFAR canister. There are also aircraft carrying heavier weapons, namely 12 retarded bombs, each weighing 200 kg. Most of these bombs have a shaped charge warhead on the front, with the rear containing 100 kg of magic dust-reinforced HE explosives in a regular blast configuration. The explosive effect would be almost the same as that of a 500-kg bomb. In addition, each bomber carried FFARs, with on average 1 or 2 canisters containing 11 FFAR rockets.

In fact, each fighter aircraft that will escort the bomber also carries two FFAR tubes containing 11 rockets in addition to AA missiles so that it can act as a ground attacker. With such a heavy loadout for ground attacks, it is not expected that many re-attacks will be needed to destroy all the designated targets. It is expected that no more than six waves of strikes will be conducted.

For CAP, they flew F1 and F3 aircraft from existing light aircraft carriers. The fighters were equipped with additional fuel tanks so that they could fly for as long as possible.

A number of ships had already broken away to move further north when the operation ships arrived at point T at 0200. 4 light carriers, a La Kasami-class battleship, 2 cruisers, and 6 destroyers moved to attack north of Gra Valkas. They moved at full speed, about 25 knots. Their first objective was to attack the ships of the Gra Valkas task force approaching Ragna. They would attack before dawn.

In addition, they would attack various targets in the port cities and surrounding areas north of Ragna. They acted as a way for the entire 'Firecracker' operation fleet to move north before returning south to return to the Mu Empire.

Also, 100 km away to the north, in the direction of the Mu Empire, a submarine was almost on the surface, with only its sail above the water surface. The submarine served the purpose of observing the radio transmissions from both the Gra Valkas and Mu Empire sides and relaying those observations via radio to the Mu Empire. That was because currently the ships of the 'Firecracker' operation were in a radio-silent condition, only momentary radio transmissions from their fighters were allowed.

The fleet leaders, including Admiral Drieker, were already on the main bridge. Admiral Drieker had given final approval for the 'Firecracker' operation. This caused all pilots to exit the briefing room, where they were waiting for orders to carry out the operation. All aircraft on deck were also started up using the external APU in preparation for starting the main engines and taking off as soon as the pilots boarded the aircraft.

By now, all the components of Operation 'Firecracker' were in position and ready for the attack.

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At 04:00

The Mu Empire's fighters began to fly from all aircraft carriers. A number of aircraft, consisting of F3s and B1s, headed straight towards several areas around Ragna. They would attack Gra Valkas' radar sites and airfields.