FATE :: YGGDRA

KINGDOM II: Grungy Men

Day 12, Month 8, Year 469 of the Fifth Age

Naval Station Port Verses

Seabirds were flying around over the port city.

On the way returning to his ship, Southern Left Navy's Fourth Fleetmaster Rhodim stood on the deck of a picket boat as it cut through the calm waters of the harbor, following the seabirds with his gaze as they wheeled and dipped effortlessly through the sky unlike the vessels sitting still like dormant giants around him.

The Eastern Anchorage, toward which the boat was steering, was dominated by a cluster of pale gray steel hulls sprawled across the area. The largest among them, the battleships of the Battle Squadron, measured between 170 and over 200 meters and were arranged in a double row, grouped by their Divisions in the middle of the bay. They were encircled by mooring points occupied by the smaller cruisers and large torpedo boats of the fleet. Among those, Rhodim's flagship was distinguished by the Vice Admiral's command flag, a square blue banner featuring a golden World Tree design encircled by a white border. This particular vessel was also anchored slightly off the usual formation, some distance away from the battleship rows and closer to the midpoint between the Eastern and Western Anchorages where their comrades of the Fifth Fleet were making their berth.

As Kain's second-oldest newtype class, the Zenebas-class battleship Askembla serving as the flagship for the Southern Left Navy's main battlegroup, was by no means the Divine Royal Navy's most powerful capital ship. In fact, the class's ten 12-ar (30,5 cm) main battery and armor designed to withstand its own gunfire made it one of the weakest capital ships in the current War of Fate to the point that it was vulnerable to some of the battlecruisers, which despite the trade of armor for speed, carried larger and more devastating armaments than the Zenebas. The Askembla was now the sole surviving ship of her class; it was nothing short of a miracle that she survived the fleet operations where even Kain's stronger and more advanced ships were sent to the bottom of the ocean one after another.

"No new orders from Headquarters."

As soon as he arrived at the Askembla, Rhodim made his way to the bridge and curtly summarized the result of the meeting despite the grim disappointment that flickered across the faces around him. In particular, the Fourth Fleet's Chief of Staff made a comment about their situation in an uncertain tone.

"We've been boxed in here for so long that even the most severe of the ships' damages from both fleets are already repaired and ready for action."

Glancing at the Fifth Fleet's battlecruisers in the distance, Rhodim nodded absentmindedly. "Well, the situation is not ideal, but as long as there are no orders to sortie, we have no other course of action but to wait and hope that our presence alone is enough to scare those Gra Valkans from doing something stupid."

In reality, the Fleetmaster inwardly felt a surge of frustration, despite his calm demeanor. The lack of decisive orders and the stalled operations were starting to wear not only on him but also on everyone. The situation had been static for too long, and though he tried to keep a brave face, the endless waiting gnawed.

The idea of a "fleet in being" was crucial to the Southern Left Navy's strategy in this Gevura campaign. By keeping a visible, albeit inactive, presence, the Kainians aimed to deter the Gra Valkans from taking certain actions around the Lyngbakr Sea. The threat of their sudden involvement could force the Gra Valkas Imperial Navy to keep their battleships concentrated nearby to pin them down, limiting their ability to monitor Kain's coasts and providing an opportunity for daredevils to defeat the enemy piecemeal. The problem, however, was that since the enemy's southern deployment was not based at the Serafym Peninsula, where the Kainians had destroyed the ports during their retreat, their exact location remained unknown.