The Kitakami Chronicles

Chapter 10: Lighthouse

It was the next day, and Kitakami and Ooi were preparing for their briefing. However, Lo Yang wanted to do something else first. In front of a large audience of other members of the ROCN, Lo Yang presented the two with a Medal of Naval Achievement. They were in the middle of an impromptu medal ceremony.

"Due to your bravery and influence in combat of turning the tide of this war, I present to you one of the navy's highest honours. You have been awarded the Medal of Naval Achievement for your efforts. We look forward in you to ending this civil war. Especially you Kitakami. You are the one who brought us hope." Lo Yang announced.

"Why thank you for the honours. I couldn't have done it without my sister. I'll uphold this award with great pride and help you reclaim what was lost. I know I have a lot of pressure on me, but I will do my best to uphold your needs." Kitakami accepted the award.

"Thanks. My sister did most of the work though, but I did my part in contributing." Ooi thanked with a little humour.

There was a quick applause from the crowd after they accepted their awards.

"Now that the ceremony is over, I would now like to start the briefing." Lo Yang began. The lights dimmed and everyone paid close attention to her charts.

We discovered that the unidentified superweapon is a long range Archimedes Death Ray (like the one WG teased for April Fools) codenamed "Lighthouse." We believe it to be an anti ship defense light refracting weapon developed as a coastal defense system. According to our information, the strike zone is heavily guarded by coastal guns and multiple army artillery units. Your objective is to destroy Lighthouse. But to do that, you must first neutralize the power facilities and coastal guns. Considering the importance of the target to the enemy, I'm afraid there's no way to avoid casualties from enemy resistance. In light of this, we called in reinforcements for this mission. Work together with them to achieve the mission objectives. Commencing Operation Pànduàn.

Those reinforcements must be the mercenaries New Jersey mentioned the other day. Kitakami hoped they would be good enough for this operation because from what she could see, the weapon is very tall and a ways away from the coast. Luckily, she found many water channels that lead to Lighthouse which were created to cool the tower's systems from a map a surveillance craft took. The weather predicted a cloudy day, however, when they reached the southern edges of Qingdao, the sun was out. This weapon relied on the sun to become effective. What was odd was that surrounding areas were still covered in cloud. It might be possible that the Communists have developed a seed that could dissipate cloud cover. From where they were at, Lighthouse could be seen in their visual range. It was massive and a kilometre tall. Kitakami and Ooi finished off refueling from an oiler and another allied ship took her turn. 3 destroyers then showed up and indicated that they were allies.

"This is Mercenary Destroyer Division 3's number 3. The name's Shiratsuyu. I'll support you anyway I can Torpedo Division X." One of the destroyers presented herself. These ships must be the mercenaries New Jersey deployed.

"Gridley to Shiratsuyu. When are you planning to visit your sister's memorial?"

""Are you ever going to get past those growing pains?" Derzki joked.

"This is no time to talk about my personal life!" Shiratsuyu was taken aback.

"Looks like a handful of destroyers have come to the rescue." Ooi told Kitakami.

"Let's hope they are competent." Kitakami wished.

Suddenly, Lighthouse activated and positioned its mirrors and refracted lenses so that high intensity solar rays beamed out towards the raiding ships.