The Warship's Diary

Battle In The Dark

Friday, 4th July 2020
At yesterday evening, i went on sortie as reinforcement to a fleet which we expected was under attack. The reinforcement fleet that i was in was composed of 9 HWS including me, 4 submarines, 3 corvettes, and 2 frigates. While travelling to the battle location, it was extremely quiet, and dark, it was the evening. There was no rain or thunder, but i couldn't see the stars. When my fleet and i reached the area where the sos message from the cargo ship came from, we saw nothing other than the island where we thought the battlefield area took place beside. Then we got another sos message from a cargo ship. The sos message came from the middle of the sea. We thought that our allies must have retreated but were still being chased. Some of us thought it was suspicious though. We didn't even bother to try and contact them. It was 10 pm at night when we reached the area where the sos message came from. There was an eerie silence, we couldn't see any HWS or FUO. It was at night so it was unbelievably dark, we could only see with the help of our equipments. We didn't know what to expect at such a dark area. I sent a drone to scout around and see what was up. But even after sending a drone to scout around, it was so dark that the drone's visibility was also very low. We also tried to use our sonar just in case there were enemy submarines, but we found none. I was about to make my drone return, but before it returned, i suddenly lost connection with it. It was extremely dark, but i could still see my drone's explosion from the distance, my drone was destroyed, no wonder i lost connection. My allies saw the destruction of my drone as well and aimed their armaments at the distance, something destroyed my drone, but we didn't know what that something is. Using the binoculars didn't help either, i tried using the binocular to see what destroyed my drone, but it was still too dark to see. And using a torch that lights up a really far distance was not a choice, my drone was destroyed, there was a great chance it was the enemy, but we didn't know how large the enemy force can be, so activating the torch that lights up a really far distance won't help, it will show them our position. We approached the area where my drone was destroyed, we were being very cautious. Then we heard the sound of artilleries being fired and before we knew it, a volley of bullets bombarded my fleet. There were also torpedoes coming our way, but we managed to avoid most of it with the help of our submarines. There were a lot of bullets in one volley, so we expected the enemy to outnumber us. We couldn't see the enemy position, so we returned fire but aimed randomly. We also turned off all the lights so that the enemy couldn't see us. As a result, the enemy's next bullets almost missed all of us. Just when i thought things couldn't get worse, a volley of bullet came again, but from another direction. We returned fire from that direction, but then from other directions, more bullets were fired at us, we were surrounded! We had to battle in the dark, we couldn't see the enemy and we didn't exactly know their position, but they know our position! To make things worse, they outnumbered us! Our radar showed no sign of aircrafts, we didn't have time to use our sonar and check if there were submarines, because we were fired from all directions. After constant volleys thrown at us, only 6 HWS remained alive, all 4 submarines were still alive, 1 corvette, that was me, and 1 frigate. The flagship had been sunken, so second in command(the frigate) commanded the submarines to go underwater, sneak past the enemy ships, and surprise attack the enemy. They were commanded to surprise attack the enemy only at one direction, the objective of this command is to make a gap in their formation surrounding us, so we could escape from the enemy's ambush. But there was one problem, the FUO would surely use their sonars, and our surprise attack would fail. I suggested that i and second in command to keep using our sonar to confuse the enemy while the submarines try to flank the enemy. We were in desperation, so we accepted any strategy and any suggestion as long as it gave us a chance to survive. We started using sonars while the submarines tried to flank the enemy. I believed that the strategy would work and my fleet's remaining survivor would make it out and back to the base, but it's like when i hoped the admiral would lighten up the training he gave me to train my ability a few weeks ago, i set up my expectations too high. We suddenly lost contact with 3 of the 4 submarines sent to flank the enemy, the enemy ships couldn't have detected the submarines, their sonars wouldn't be helpful, we kept using our sonars to mess with theirs, so why did we lost contact with 3 submarines? Then the last submarine reported that he saw enemy submarines. We got careless enough to assume that the enemy had no submarines just because we hadn't seen any sight of submarines. Then second in command was hit with an AP rounds, it killed her. I didn't contact the submarine, i really thought i was going to go to heaven, or maybe going to hell. I was in desperation because i thought i was going to sink, but an idea came to my mind, stop firing and do not use sonars. This wasn't a bad idea, the enemy couldn't see me, so they would keep firing at me until i sink, and when i sink, i would stop firing, which means that if i stop firing, they would think i had sunk. I stopped firing, and not long after i stopped firing, the enemy stopped firing at me as well(how did i survive for some time without sinking? Because the enemy couldn't tell exactly where i was, it was dark, so their shots mostly missed). I thought that i was finally safe, but that thought disappeared instantly. I remembered about the enemy submarines, the enemy submarines would go ahead and check whether i was still alive or not, i panicked for a few seconds. Then i decided to throw away all my equipments except my cruising equipment, my navigation equipment, and my communication equipment. I threw my almost broken equipments to the sea so that the enemy submarines would think that the equipments were proof that i had been sunk (who would throw away their own equipment?). It seems the submarine fell for my trick, but that was not the end. The enemy used a torch that can light up a long distance to confirm that my fleet had completely been sunk. I dived into the water as soon as i saw the the light from the enemy, my equipment was waterproof, so i didn't have to worry about my equipments. I was shivering so badly, i was afraid the enemy would find me, and if they found me, i would be dead. Fortunately, the enemy only used the torch for a small amount of time, they turned it off immediately, and i got back to the surface. It was still dark, i still couldn't see far away, i couldn't tell if the enemy was still in their formation or they had left, so i waited until dawn. When the sun rised in the dawn, i could see that the enemy had left. I couldn't contact the base, my communication equipment was half broken, i couldn't contact anyone from faraway. I couldn't contact the 1 submarine that was still alive either, i don't know what happened to him. Then i got one sos message from the island where we lost contact with the fleet which were supposed to transport supplies to Kalimantan. I went to see who sent the sos message before returning to the base. When i saw the beach of the island, i also saw an female HWS with air force soldier type waving at me. She was about 15 years old, black haired and around 160cm tall. She was glad to see me, she said that she was an HWS that went to escort the cargo ships with supplies to Kalimantan. She was told to scout around in case of FUO ships, then when she was mid-air, an emp bomb was fired at the fleet, that must be when we lost contact with her fleet. The emp bomb also influenced her equipment, so she crash landed to the island, but didn't die. When she looked back at her fleet, her fleet was bombarded by enemy ships non stop, in 5 minutes or so, the fleet was annihilated. The enemy didn't know she survived and was at the island though, so she remained undetected. Well, that means the sos message which we thought came from our cargo ship carrying supplies was actually a fake sos message sent by our enemies, my fleet fell for it twice, they led my fleet to the island, then to the ambush spot. She stayed in the island trying to send sos message, but she had to repair her communication equipment first if she wanted to send any sos message. That explains why she didn't send my fleet any sos message when we were near the coast of the island. The girl also said that my face was very pale, i almost died, i didn't sleep, i might be the last HWS who survived in my fleet, of course my face was pale! I wanted to get both i and her back to the base, but her equipment was broken, she couldn't fly anymore, the only way i could bring her back to the base at that time was by carrying her back to the naval base, but that meant leaving my navigation equipment and my communication equipment at the island. If i leave my equipment, it will take a lot of resource and time to rebuild it, but if i leave the girl here and come back for her later on, who knows what might happen to her. In the end, i left my communication equipment and my navigation equipment at the island and carried her back to the base. On our way back to the base, she fell asleep on my back. Poor girl, she had been stuck on an island not knowing whether rescue would come save her or not, there must have been no provision too. When i reached the base in the morning, one of the engineers saw me and called the admiral, other HWS around also saw me and crowded to see me. They saw me heavily damaged and carrying a girl. Then the admiral came running to the coast, i got to the ground, put the girl down, and explained what happened to the admiral. But the admiral saw my very pale face, so he told me to go to the medical room and get some rest, he said that he would take care of the rest for me and i could explain what happened at the sortie after i rest. I nodded in response and went inside the medical room, the doctors were surprised at my pale face and my body injuries, the HWS that was in the medical room who woke up from their sleep was also very surprised(my face is usually not pale every time i went to the medical room, not this time though). I must have looked like a ghost, because some of the doctors were afraid to approach me. I didn't say anything to the doctors, i just lied down at one of the empty beds and fell asleep. I then woke up at noon, the doctors usually doesn't ask for explanation of what happened at sortie, but they asked this time. I explained to them for a long time. At the afternoon, the admiral visited me, i explained to him what happened during the sortie and he listened carefully. After listening to the explanation, he said that i was right about the enemy being able to send us a fake sos message, he also gave me a list of HWS from my fleet and the fleet which were supposed to send supplies to Kalimantan who presumably died, one of the submarines was Nanggala. After dinner, i went to check the red writing on the mirror in the toilet, then i heard a sobbing sound from the women's toilet. It was Cakra's sobbing voice, she must have cried because she got the news that Nanggala didn't came back. This is a war, so death and loss are inevitable, but i can't blame her. She's not even 15 yet, but she already lost her twin brother in this war. I checked the red writing, the red writing was still messy, but now i could read the writing, it said "give it back". I don't know what it means but i am sure it means i have something that the ghost wants from me, if the red writing was because of the ghost. My hand is too tired to write anymore.