Operation Acanthus

I updated the map to where Littorio's fleet is located. Currently, they're 200 kilometres west of Crete, and it's a relief they managed to get that far without any incident.

"Commander Matteo there's an expansive fog up ahead" Barn reported through the radio. "It probably has the island surrounded"

That fog's definitely not good. Hmm should we turn around and wait for the Royal Navy?

The information the girls provided a few weeks ago suggests that the Sirens have limits on how far they can use their portal technology. They cannot freely teleport anywhere without someone acting as a waypoint, as in the case of the Crimson Axis during their war against Azur Lane.

"Can you confirm?"

"I'm currently directing my scouts further east"

"Send one of them inside the fog since it may be an illusion, or barrier. I also need some south of your position; make sure the Sirens aren't coming from there"

"Yes sir"

I turned to Veneto who is with me in the command room.

"Why do we have no land based air force? This would be easier if we had one"

"Most of the world's air force were annihilated during the first war, and as the Sirens use unmanned aircraft, it was deemed unfeasible to rebuild the air force"

"I get that, but couldn't you have put souls in air fields and such? Creating an airfield girl or something"

"...." She looked at me like I'm talking nonsense

"If you can create shipgirls, why not do the same for airfields? I mean you do have the tech already"

Seeing how Veneto doesn't have an answer, they were probably made to not question stuff they aren't concerned with. I guess it's natural for people in power to do shady things.

We really should be more careful in dealing with the people of this world.

"I guess we could propose it to the government" She suggested.

I turned back to the map looking at the island of Malta to the Suez Canal, then issued orders through the radio.

"Everyone be careful of enemy aircraft, they might have at least one carrier in there" I warned the girls.

"Turn to the south if ever they appear and bring your port sides against them. We may need to retreat to Malta and meet with the Royal Navy girls defending the island" I added.

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Back to the girls in the Mediterranean.

They are now about 100km from Crete when Bearn detected enemy aircraft ahead of them and launched fighters to intercept them.

"Everyone, we've got company!" Bearn warned the fleet. "Commander, we encountered enemy aircraft"

Per instructions of the commander, the fleet turned to the south while readying their ship's anti-aircraft guns to target the incoming planes. Bearn's fighters immediately went to work and intercepted the incoming aircraft, shooting some down before they were in range of the fleet's AA guns.

As the enemy planes got close, the girls unleashed a barrage of AA fire downing the rest that the fighters weren't able to destroy.

At the same time, Bearn's scouts managed to get inside the fog untouched. What her planes reported is a clear area where you can even see the horizon and the blue sky. After a short while, the planes also detected multiple ships, their course has them going towards the Sardegna fleet.

"Commander, we have enemy ships. One carrier, four cruisers, and 7 destroyers. No information about anything below the surface"

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I pondered over Bearn's report of enemy aircraft

So they do have scouts somewhere, but when did we get detected? Did we miss a scout, or a submarine is in the area? Do they have more carriers in the area? Should I risk it?

I thought it over and over, the capabilities of Bearn's fighters, to the effectiveness of the girls' AA and the risk of submarine attacks as the fleet doesn't have any destroyers so they don't carry any kind of sonar, nor depth charges.

If there was, they could've attacked us earlier, or they could be waiting in ambush inside the illusion fog. Thus I made my decision.

"Bearn we'll be attacking that fleet, prioritize the carrier. Deploy all of your available fighters as escorts" I ordered.

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After receiving the order, Bearn launched all of the remaining fighter planes in her hangar and had them circle the fleet while she launches her torpedo, and dive bomber.

"Everyone, deploy your rigging. We won't have any air cover for a while so our ship forms will be big targets for any attacker" Littorio told the fleet as Bearn only had 32 aircraft at best.

The girls then de-materialized their ships which turned into hundreds of pieced of blue cubes and re-materialized as equipment attached to their bodies like pieces of clothing. At the same time, all of Bearn's aircraft flew towards the detected enemy.

...

After a more or less 20 minutes, Bearn's planes arrived at the Siren ship's location and immediately begun their attack runs.

Her fighters immediately targeted the enemy fighters already in the air to prevent them from firing on bombers.

The bombers split in two groups with equal numbers of torpedo, and dive bombers. One aiming for the carrier, and the other aiming for the destroyers.

The first ones to attack were the dive bombers targeting the destroyers. They dived at a very steep angle then released their bombs a couple hundred meters above the ships.

The bombs did a lot of damage to four of the destroyers with two sinking due to lucky hits that had the bomb penetrate the deck of the ship.

The torpedo bombers came next, targeting the remaining destroyers still afloat. This time they weren't lucky as some enemy fighters that slipped through managed to shoot down two of the five in the group and enemy AA shooting down the rest.

...

As the first group started their attack, the second group targeting the carrier immediately started theirs. The group's torpedo squad went in at about the same time as group one's to effectively split the enemy fleet's AA while the dive bombers started diving towards the carrier at an angle of 70 degrees.

The torpedo bombers of group two are luckier as they successfully launched their torpedoes about 1000 meters from the target without being harassed by fighters. Then, by a great coincidence, the torpedoes hit the carrier at the same time as the bombers successfully dropping their bombs on the deck.

The carrier begun to list while explosions, and fires occurred throughout the ship.

After the attack run, the planes went back to Bearn leaving behind one carrier, and two destroyers sunk, and two heavily damaged. In exchange the fleet lost five fighters, six torpedo bombers, and four dive bombers as some were shot down by AA as they finished their attack.

The outcome isn't great, but if the enemy loses their carriers in the area, the fleet's job will get a lot easier.

Curiously, the Siren fleet continued on their course towards Littorio's fleet even though they suffered heavy damage.