Into The Horizon: An NHS Fanfic

Chapter Zero

July 4th, 1898, Sea of Lhorus, HEMS Guardian. 0200 Hours.

Aboard the bridge of the battleship HEMS Guardian, in the middle of the night, a silent and watchful woman watches the waves lit by the bright moon. Alongside other officers in night shift looking and shifting pieces in the combat map, the cold breeze of the impending winter is barely felt with the warm interior of the ship.

Suddenly, one of the junior officers handling the communications console spoke. "Report from the Acorn! the unknown fleet is cruising 23 knots westward at bearing 21 of our position, estimated distance is 240 nautical miles. Enemy fleet is composed of 3 Battleships, 4 light cruisers, and 7 destroyers." The report is loud enough for everyone in the bridge to hear, and the battle maps are adjusted as fit.

Since the beginning of the operation 2 days ago on morning of July 2nd, radio silence was kept with only encoded telegraphic communications allowed over long distances. The enemy that the Royal Entian Navy have encountered before completely took them by surprise. Long range radio communications are easily intercepted and even short range radio communications are jammed. So far, coded telegraphic communications are still safe and thus the navy kept using it.

The captain walked towards the combat map and spoke, "How long until contact?" her voice crisp and emotionless as she adorn a stern and serious expression, looking closely, one can see her lips and hear her voice quivering from nervousness.

Luna Horizon. A newly appointed captain from the elite graduates of the Entian Naval Academy. Although she had experience in combat when their training ship, the cutter HEMS Logger was attacked by pirates during her academy years, it was still a far cry compared to the foes she is about to face.

"Approximately 6 hours, ma'am." Replied one of the senior officers in the room, the young woman's voice also hinted with nervousness.

Turning to the comms, Luna said, "Relay this to the rest of the fleet. Maintain course and speed, those that can go take a nap. We need any energy we can get. Ready to battlestations in four hours."

As the captain relayed her orders, the senior officers nodded to each other and head on to their own quarters to get rest. Luna followed suit, with only a few officers remaining monitoring further developments. The other ships' crews also did the same, with some of the ones choosing to stay awake helping with readying and recalibrating their weapons as necessary, not wanting failure during the fight.

Hours seem to fly by as half the crews sleep, and after four hours, the call for battlestations came. With everyone having decent amount of rest, the fleet is prepared to their tip-top shape.

5 Battleships, 6 Heavy Cruisers, 4 Light Cruisers, and 12 Destroyers, it seems that they are at least numerically superior against the enemy. The nerve-wrecking minutes past by, and soon a call from the lookouts in the conning towers came. "Enemy 2 o'clock! 20 nautical miles!"

Hearing that throughout the ship's speakers, the massive 13 inch guns of the battleships swung forth. 3 of the battleships are of the Guardian-class. They are armed with 4x twin 13inch guns in twin turrets - one in aft and front, one in each side. Meanwhile, two of the battleships are from the newer Vanguard-class, with 4x twin 13inch guns in twin turrets at the centerline of the ship.

As the battleships swing their turrets, the destroyers and light cruisers escorting them sped up and formed a screen at the starboard side of the fleet, with the heavy cruisers joining the battleships' firing line with their own 13inch guns.

Unlike the battleships, the cruisers only had 4 main guns in twin turrets, forward and aft. However, their sides are lined up with 6x 4inch guns separated into 3 twin guns against small ships like light cruisers and destroyers.