Munitions Empire

"Boom!" Just as the Brunas No. 3 was hit by a torpedo, flooded with water, and started to run aground at the anchorage, a horrific explosion suddenly erupted from the side of the Brunas No. 2 battleship. Sailors on the deck were engulfed by the explosion, and fragments of the deck were thrown into the air along with some of them. Everyone was stunned, not knowing what had happened, only a few realized that they might have been attacked. But this was Brunas Military Harbor! There were patrol destroyers on the lookout outside, so how did the enemy launch an attack without any alarms? In the blink of an eye, a massive explosion sounded again, as the Brunas No. 2 battleship was hit by another torpedo. The side of the ship, which had little to no torpedo defense design, flooded heavily, and the entire warship began to list. The sea water rushed in like mad through the twisted cracks in the steel plates, immediately filling up the watertight compartments. Since many of the compartment doors were destroyed by the explosion, it took just a moment for the sea water to flood the corridors, spreading further. The flooding was simply too rapid, the devastating effect of the torpedo far exceeding that of shells, as the damage was below the waterline. A volume of water that ten shells could not have caused was easily inflicted by a single torpedo. It was like the floods that happened in Tang Country, the water that surged into the cabins instantly swallowed up chairs and hammocks, resting sailors, and large-caliber shells scattered around from the vibrations. Those powerful 350mm caliber shells now soaked in the water, at least spared the risk of sympathetic detonation. The water quickly flooded the engine room, where stokers and sailors, still dazed from the explosions, were suddenly thrown into disarray by the rushing water. The soldiers frantically tried to escape, but watertight doors that couldn't be closed in time did nothing to stem the flow of water, quickly resulting in the full flooding of the lower compartments. Subsequent explosions, the second and third, rendered all efforts to save the ship fruitless, as uncontrollable flooding in the lower decks of the battleship led to an unstoppable list. Battleships of that era had no underwater defenses against torpedoes and even had their lower defenses deliberately reduced to save weight, making them exceptionally vulnerable to torpedo attacks. With three dreadful explosions, the Brunas No. 2 battleship already listed at nearly forty-five degrees, and soon one side of its deck plunged into the water. Fortunately, as it was a natural anchorage, the water was no deeper than ten meters. Brunas No. 3 had already sunk to the seabed, its bridge and smokestack still visible, not completely submerged. Brunas No. 2 was unlikely to sink entirely either, its one side soon resting on the seabed while the other, still somewhat buoyant, remained afloat, looking exceedingly wretched. By this time, even a fool could tell this was no mere accident. As a result, all warships docked in the harbor raised anchor and set sail, turning the entire anchorage into chaos. In the water, there were people calling for help, but the tall-sided warships did not care about the lives of these men, as they sped away from this perilous area. Brunas No. 1 and Brunas No. 4 battleships signaled to nearby vessels with flags, requesting protection for their safety. "No chance now! The enemy's ships have started moving!" Watching as he lost the angle for an attack, the captain of the U-11 submarine muttered frustratedly. He had hoped to take a shot at another battleship, but regrettably, the slow speed of his submarine underwater meant he ultimately missed the perfect opportunity to strike. So he could only grudgingly turn the bow around, using the two torpedo tubes at the stern to try his luck. After launching two more torpedoes, the U-11 submarine had fired all its immediately available torpedoes. Reloading would take considerably more time. In order not to be detected by the enemy, the captain retracted the periscope and led his submarine slowly towards the open sea. In the midst of the chaos, the sky had completely darkened, and searchlights swept back and forth across the water, everyone on the lookout for potential enemy "saboteurs." Yes, after asking many of the outer patrol destroyers, the fleet commanders assumed the mysterious explosions were the work of enemy spy saboteurs. After all, it wasn't possible for enemy warships to silently infiltrate a heavily guarded anchorage, so internal sabotage or infiltration by a small group became the more plausible assumption. While everyone was playing a thrilling game of 'Werewolf' on their own warships, a cruiser that had already started up and was positioned to protect the side of Brunas No. 4 battleship, the flagship of the Laines Empire's main fleet, swept its searchlight across a white wake on the water surface. The sailor operating the searchlight frowned and then swept the light back to the wake, confirming the unusual trail did indeed exist. He adjusted the light closer, trying to find the end of the trail. However, by the time he saw the wake bearing down on the side of his cruiser at breakneck speed, it was already too late. His eyes widened in horror as something unidentified closed in on the ship's side, followed by an explosion that tore the hull apart. He himself was thrown into the air by the violent tremor. With water columns rising on either side, the cruiser was lifted from the center by the explosion, its bow and stern bending into a grotesque angle. Then, as the raised middle section quickly fell back down, both ends of the warship were again hoisted high by the waves. The Admiral of the Laines Empire's Navy, who had just reached the bridge and was preparing his fleet for battle, witnessed the explosion. He saw the cruiser before him folding in half right in front of his eyes. Another explosion followed, hitting the broken cruiser again. The still disturbed stern was engulfed in explosion once more. The towering water column rose nearly a hundred meters high, with the falling seawater even splashing against the bridge windows of his flagship. "Where is the enemy? Find the lurking spies who sabotaged the warship!" ground his teeth in fury, the Admiral of the Laines Empire's Navy clenched his fists, giving his orders word by word. He hadn't yet heard the whistling of shells, nor had he seen any fall. Therefore, he believed it must have been sabotage, and he had to find those damned saboteurs! "Sir! The destroyers on perimeter patrol haven't detected any enemy warships! They heard no artillery fire, saw no flash of gunfire," an officer reported anxiously. "Destroyers on the perimeter are searching the surface and have not found any suspicious small craft..." another officer promptly added in his report. "Increase patrols inside! Armed guards! All active personnel to move in groups of at least three! Watch over each other! Prevent deliberate sabotage of the warships!" the Admiral issued a string of orders, as he couldn't rule out the possibility of internal sabotage. After all, it was common knowledge that Tang Country's intelligence personnel were omnipresent, and the possibility of internal crew sabotage could not be dismissed under unknown circumstances. With this in mind, he continued to order, "Check every corner of the warship! Report any suspicious items immediately!" Already on edge, he didn't know what to do; if his resolve hadn't been firm, he might have ordered the flooding of the ammunition storage to prevent potential sympathetic detonation by now. Unbeknownst to him, at this moment, the mastermind behind the massacre of Brunas Harbor's fleet had already broken contact and was leisurely slipping away into the depths of the ocean. "What on earth has happened?" Shireck's advisor arrived late, walking into the bridge and looking towards the sinking cruiser in the distance. "We've been attacked. It's either explosives planted by spies or something else. Either way, my fleet is finished!" the Admiral replied bitterly, his voice even breaking with emotion. He had not yet seen his enemy; his fleet had not even left the harbor, and half of his four main battleships had already been sunk! That was half of their core battle strength! Those were the mightiest warships at sea, built at great expense by the Empire! They were the battleships on which his Emperor had placed such great hopes! Just like that, two battleships were inexplicably sunk! Two entire battleships! How was he to explain this to his Emperor? What he did not know was that the same had happened in several other ports. Gobur's fleet had avoided the attack by setting sail north to Dorne beforehand. However, Gobur's ports were not spared; several of the largest-tonnage transport ships docked in the port were sunk, all settling at the bottom of Gobur's largest harbor. At the same time, Dorne's Winterless Port was also attacked, with two cruisers mysteriously sunk, and a 12,000-ton transport ship was not spared from calamity. The Poplar Kingdom's fleet suffered heavy losses as well; a battleship was sunk, and two cruisers settled at the bottom of Osa Military Harbor, completely paralyzing it. Their Southwater Port also encountered a "ghost", with three civilian ships sunk, again with no sign of the attacker. Eternal Winter Port sustained heavy damage, with a flagship Eternal Winter-class battleship sinking heavily at the port's anchorage and two cruisers going under. In the Great Southern Bay of Sheng Nation, the chaos was even more rampant, with over ten ships attacked and smoke billowing everywhere. However, the Sheng Nation's fleet had set off early and narrowly escaped disaster. In the absence of knowledge about the existence of new weapons like submarines, the navies of various nations have referred to these attacks as "ghost attacks", and because Brunas Harbor suffered the heaviest losses, these ghosts of Tang Country have thus been dubbed the "Brunas Ghosts." The Allied Forces' fleet, before even fully assembling, had already lost four battleships, and many ports were crippled by the attacks.