Zhejiang and Enterprise (Book One)

The Day I Died

The year is 2024. I've just been launched from the port of Dalian after being commissioned by the government nearly a full year earlier than planned due to rising tensions and the outbreak of a small regional conflict. With me are destroyers Dalian, Kaifeng, Haikou, Lanzhou and Ningbo. 

We're all heading to the Philippine Sea, hoping to get within striking range of Guam undetected. I have no clue as to why I'm being sent this far away from the mainland given the current situation but orders are orders and the admiral commanding my vessel is intent on following them even despite my crew's lack of experience operating me.  

Surprisingly enough, we make it to the Okinawa Islands between Japan and Taiwan without any incidents. I had expected at minimum, fighters from Japan to buzz overhead but it's completely silent. We manoeuvre through the islands and into the Philippine Sea unopposed and this gives everyone a boost of confidence. 

As we approach the middle of the Philippine Sea, the commanding officer begins issuing orders to the crew who quickly begin readying aircraft. We are still 1182km away from our target but our paranoid Admiral decides to launch from here. Unbeknownst to her, however, a newly constructed USS Enterprise was conducting naval drills less than 500km from our position. She was a Ford-class carrier and had been named in honour of her predecessors despite the fact that all her sister ships were named after presidents. 

The launch of the first Sukhoi Su-57e's from my deck immediately alerted her E-2C Hawkeye aircraft which was monitoring the airspace around her drill exercise site at the time. Her crew immediately launched 4 F-35s to investigate. As my own crew were unaware of this, they continued launching our own aircraft towards Guam. 

15 minutes into the operation, Dalian's radar detects the incoming aircraft and 6 J-16e fighters are launched to intercept. Everyone's aware that these fighters won't stand a chance against the opponent if they fire first but we are hoping the element of surprise will still work in our favour. Even so, as a precaution, my escorts all reposition themselves to better defend against air attacks from that specific direction without affecting launches from my carrier. 

35 minutes in, the 6 J-16e fighters encounter the enemy and, through rapid manoeuvring, forces them to alter their course leading them away from our strike group. Shortly after, 3 of the 4 F-35s are shot down and the "Battle of the Philippine Sea" begins. 

2 hours into the operation, neither side has managed to break through the defences of the other as both carrier's Air Wings are forced to fight in much closer proximities than preferred allowing my escorts to fully support my Air Wing thus negating any advantage the F-35s and F-18s would have normally had resulting in a 1:2 kill ratio in our favour for the first few minutes of the battle. The Su-573's launched earlier also made it to their target and successfully bombed both the naval and air bases in Guam despite being met with a ton of resistance. However, due to their prioritizing of the naval structures over that of the airbase, a taxiway remains operational which is long enough to be used as a runway. 

As the Su-57s return, they are intercepted by F-18s and are forced to climb out of range. This allows the F-18s to approach from the South East. My radars detect them but in the confusion on deck, my crew mistakenly identify them as our returning Su-57s. This proves a fatal mistake as the minute they get within range they plummet towards the sea at top speed then level out just above the surface all but vanishing off my radar. By the time it is repositioned, they're on top of us and release their full payload into my starboard side. My CIWS manage to intercept a few of the missiles but their sheer number overwhelms both my defence and that of my strike group. 

BOOM!

The first explosion rocks the ship as more and more missiles connect with my hull. The crew begins to panic as water begins flooding in on the lower levels. As more and more missiles all hit the same location, the hull breach becomes larger and larger letting in more and more water. The ship begins tipping to the side. In a last-ditch effort, the commander orders the remaining aircraft to take off as quickly as possible. To my amazement, the crew manages to miraculously launch all the remaining aircraft and successfully evacuates the ship using the helicopters. What's more, the F-18s did not attack the other ships in the fleet allowing the crew to be transported successfully to other ships in the group. 

BOOM! 

As the commander boards the last helicopter, he looks back at me one last time. A bomb from an F-35 that finally broke through drops on my flight deck as his helicopter leaves barely escaping the blast. The bomb punches right through the now weakened deck. Its explosion causes a chain reaction as the fire and shrapnel cause nearby ammunition to explode. 

The destroyers that were escorting me all begin heading back towards safer waters as I continue sinking beneath the waves. I'm not certain why but the aircraft from USS Enterprise doesn't give chase, instead, focusing all their efforts on me despite it being quite obvious that I've been abandoned. My own Air Wing doesn't stick around long either as they quickly redirect their efforts to protect the retreating strike group. 

The fire makes its way into the engine room before the water flooding in can successfully cut it off. In the crew's haste to evacuate, they mistakenly left a single cap open. The fire makes it to the cap and instantly ignites the backup fuel which causes yet another explosion that rocks the ship. This explosion damages the nuclear reactors housed in my base which causes yet another massive explosion, this time wiping out most traces of my ship ever existing. The explosion also completely erases 19 Aircraft from Enterprise's air wing from the sky. The others in the vicinity barely managed to escape with a few suffering severe damage but still able to function long enough to make it back to safety. 

Thus I died, shortly after launching on my first ever mission. I fought and succeeded in my mission, failed my first battle but successfully protected my escorts. Thus my story begins. 


================================================

A very summarized version of the events that took place merely there to provide background information. 

Note: Going forward, I might refer to both the Su-57s and the J-16s as just such, leaving off the e's at the end to signify the different variant due to the fact that they'll be the only planes of their kind in the world regardless and I most definitely won't remember to add the e XD.