The Spy Ship of Azur Lane

Under Attack?

With the missiles armed and loaded, General Askeran points his RIM batteries towards the direction of the jets. He then picks up his binoculars and looks towards the same direction. He then picks up his assault rifle and tries to arm it. If his first line of defence proves unsuccessful and the jets manage to get closer, he'll use his AK-74. It might not do much against them, but it can still cause damage to the wings and the fuselage. 

Even better, the rifle is equpped with armor piercing bullets. These were originally made to be used by special forces squads against improvised armored boats, and since the modern fighter planes are similarly armored, these bullets should do the trick. All that is required is good aiming, and that's just about it. Thankfully, he knows exactly where to aim.

He places a magazine below the rifle and tries to arm it. Unfortunately, the bolt won't move. It appears that the rifle hasn't been used for quite some time, and it's full of dust and possibly rusty from the interior. No matter how many times he tries to pull the bolt, it still won't move. Apparently the rust has taken over the interior metal, the gun is completely jammed.

-'Seriously now?', he says to himself. 'Of all the times, and you decide to jam now?'.

But before he can do or say anything else, his radar beeps again. This time, the contacts on his screen are much smaller. A missile from each aircraft has been launched, and they are heading straight for him towards the starboard side. That's impossible. His stealth mode is on, so he couldn't have been picked up on radar. Yet the missile warning is on. Now General Akseran is left with two choices. Either take a hit and risk siniking, or intercept the missiles and risk giving away his position. From the looks of it though, seems like his position has already been found out, so it's pretty much pointless to sit back and brace for impact.

Not wasting his time, he runs towards his laptop and types a code on the keyboard, reprogramming the CIWS and RIM batteries. Instead of locking on the aircraft, they are now programmed to intercept and destroy the missiles as soon as they get in firing range. Until he is able to restore the electronic jammer, he needs to buy himself some time. Because of the extent of the damage, he is going to need more than a screwdriver and a pair of wires to fix it. If it hadn't been for that storm, he wouldn't need to use his weapons in the first place.

With the missiles reaching a distance of ten kilometers, the RIM batteries automatically lock on and fire their own missiles, successfully intercepting the targets before they manage to hit General Askeran, who is on the roof of his ship, trying to repair his jammer. Now the jets know where he is, there's no going back now. All he can do is just sit down and wait for the aircraft to close in on him and attack. He's not really concerned about suffering any damage, his weapons are powerful enough to counter any type of aerial threat. 

What he is really concerned about is the fact that he will have to shoot those planes down. Sure he is a spy ship, but he does not wish to take away lives if it is not necessary. But that's something to be expected when it comes to intelligence gathering, maritime or not. The only way to spare them, is if they simply change course and turn away from him, otherwise he will have no choice but to initiate self defense. They fired first, so his actions will be justified.

Then, all of a sudden, the missile warnings go off. To the General's surprise, the seven jets have changed course and are heading northeast on course zero six zero. That's strange. They were in such a short distance to fire the rest of their missiles, and they just changed their mind? They had the perfect opportunity to send him to the bottom of the ocean, so why did they spare him?

-'A lot of things I don't know', he says to himself, knowing there is nobody around to listen to him. 'And I don't like it'.

He then sits down in front of his laptop again and checks the seven jets. He might not have visual contact with them anymore, but he can still track their moves. At least that way, he'll know where they are going. Good thing his radar doesn't require satellite connection, otherwise he would have been navigating blind.

From the looks of it, the jet aircraft seem to be heading towards the unknown fleet. He was so focused on defending himself from the aerial aggressors, he forgot all about the fleet. Unfortunately, he is too far to be able to identify the ships. His IFF and analysis systems might be working, but for them to function properly, he needs to get closer.

On the other hand, doing so would mean exposing himself to a potential threat. He nearly got attacked a dew minutes ago, he is not willing to go through the same again. The least he can do is try and listen to their communications like he did earlier. Problem is, he's been listeting to only morse codes which he has never heard before, so it's pretty much useless.

-'I guess that leaves me no choice', he says to himself again and gets up. He then exits the bridge and walks down the hallway of his ship. 

If he can't listen to them or watch them, the last choice he's got is to observe them by air. Thankfully, ships like him are always equipped with a specialized drone for long range recon missions. If the mission is either too risky or requires more detais, ships like him will always have a drone stored at one of the lockers which serves as its hangar. There's no way General Askeran will risk another confrontation, which is why his UAV will do the job for him. Good thing he had it assembled earlier. 

One good thing about the Icarus UAV, is that it's a 1/9 scale drone, meaning it's similar to an RC toy plane and can be launched by hand. It's small, agile, and invisible to enemy radars. It can fly so high that, even if it's tracked down, they still won't be able to find it since it will be flying close to the edge of space. Thanks to its solar wings, it can stay in the air for more than 24 hours without the need of refueling. Thanks to this little fella, the enemies won't know what hit them.

After exiting the bridge, he turns the UAV's propeller on and lifts it up. As soon as the engine reaches maximum speed, he throws it at the horizon, watching it disappear in the bright blue sky. Now all that's needed is to transmit it the coordinates so that it will know where to go. Hopefully the jets didn't track him down. If they did, then he will have to start sailing as far away as possible. Well, once the UAV reaches the unknown fleet, he'll find out.

For now, all he can do is sit back and watch. Yet for some reason, he can't help but sense that this is far from over. His troubles have only begun.

(And that's all for today's chapter. I apologize for not updating this story sooner, but I have  a very busy schedule. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Also, feel free to check out and subscribe to my Youtube (Literature Defense Force) channel. Until then, see you next time. Remember, your opinion is always important).