Chapter 7 - The Main Fleet of the Royal Navy

In the dark and calm ocean, I controlled my submarine in a silent position. My main goal was to sneak out of the Gibraltar military base without being detected by their sea sensors. My submarine's movement was at minimum speed and relied on passive sonar for underwater navigation.

 "Conn, sonar! New contact bearing 100, designated Siera 1."

 "Conn, sonar! New contact bearing 120, designated Siera 2."

 "Conn, sonar! New contact bearing 140, designated Siera 3."

 Suddenly, my passive sonar caught a small movement on the surface of the water. Sofia quickly locked onto the movement and forwarded the information to the tactical screen that monitored their movements.

 "What the hell?" was what I said after seeing the line of Siera contacts forming a convoy of ships.

 "Master, it looks like a Royal Navy convoy heading to Gibraltar. Should we greet their arrival?" Sofia asked.

 "Ugh, that's a really bad idea, Sofia. The war tactics for stealth submarines aren't like that."

 Sofia's presence in my submarine system provides tactical convenience and moral support. I would go crazy if I were alone in the ocean without anyone to talk to. In my previous life, I was a loner that was connected to the internet for trash talk. So, I'm not that lonely.

 Ugh, I miss social media in toxic formallity.

 If I'm not mistaken, the Azurlane world has a global internet network and social media called Juustagram.

 I'll find out after finding the main island.

 "But, according to the military book published by Azurlane. Submarines are used to break up ship convoys with surprise surface for greeting allies or foes. Isn't that situation very suitable for the current situation?"

 "Yep, that's right. Such surface attack tactics were often used by Uboat submarines during the Second World War. However, this stealth submarine is very different from them. The advancement of technology has changed submarine attack tactics and you should understand that, Sofia."

 "S-Sorry, Master. I was trying to understand the information from Azurlane's database and it seems to be different from the knowledge that Master has."

 "It's okay, just think of it as additional junk data for your database. For now, we just pass them undetected."

 "Understood, Master!"

 The depth of my submarine is 200 meters, sonar contact at that depth can easily find my submarine's presence if my submarine's body uses a steel frame and iron on its outer layer.

 However, the sonar technology owned by the Royal Navy ship is unable to detect my submarine's body which is protected by soft pads to dampen active sonar emissions.

 "Sofia, make this a special lesson for you. We will pass the Royal Navy convoy right below them without being detected by their underwater blind ears sonar," I ordered.

 "Ung?" Sofia looked confused.

 Even the artificial intelligence had a confused expression to process my command.

 I've heard about this before, to detect a submarine there two ways can be done, namely listening to sounds underwater or capturing suspicious signature signals of ships in surface radar. For that reason, some military ships limit their radio contact, so the radar not picking up signature signals from radio wave.

 This looks very interesting.

 "Sofia, identify Siera's contact based on the signature that has been obtained!" my command.

 Each ship has its identification mark such as hull number, radio frequency, ship silhouette shape, and sound produced by water bubble cavitation from the submarine's perspective.

 "Master, it will take some time to identify the ships. There is too much noise created by them."

 "Yeah, the convoy of ships sounds very noisy. Match it with the data that has been successfully obtained."

 "Un! Understood!"

 Slowly but surely, the small screen in front of me displayed the ship identification that Sofia had successfully solved.

 Well, it wasn't perfect but Sofia managed to separate the source of the noise for one ship.

 "Master, for ship name identification. We have one problem-"

 "We don't have data on their cavitation sound, right?" I said.

 "Un!" Sofia agreed with what I said.

 "Show the list of ships heading to Gibraltar military base on Tactical Map Operation!"

 "Yes, Master!"

 Tactical Map Operation displayed the list of ships heading to Gibraltar military base in 2D node mode. The data between the passive sonar and the information obtained by Sofia matched perfectly. There were seven unknown classes of ships heading to the Gibraltar military base.

 Using a very loud cavitation frequency, I was able to figure fairly accurate data on the signature shipgirls and it was Battleship-type.

 "Huh? They prepared this many shipgirls to destroy the Siren Strongholds?" I said.

 "Ung? Is that not enough?" Sofia replied.

 "No, it's more than enough, especially with the presence of Battleships supported by healers and buffers from Royal Navy."

 Buuuuuummmm...

 Warararararara...

 Swiiiiirrrrrrlllll...

 My submarine slowly passed the Royal Navy convoy, the sound of their propellers and the cavitation of their water bubbles were very loud to my ears.

 "Uwaaah… We passed them undetected," Sofia said.

 "Sofia, periscope depth!" I ordered.

 "Um, Master? Why are we going to periscope depth?" Sofia asked.

 "Sofia, we lack data on Royal Navy ship signatures. This is our chance to perfect the data we've captured for ship identification."

 "Ah! That's right! Why didn't I think of this before?" Sofia said.

 "Should we use the Hunter Killer Drone?" Sofia continued.

 "No, don't! Use the periscope to see the situation and launch the Hunter Killer Drone if the situation permits.

 "Hmm… Why do we have to do that?"

 "Sofia, we are a secret unit protected by the Admiralty Code. Revealing ourselves would be completely contrary to our background story."

 "Eh? I've already registered a hundred new identities that support our background in the Azurlane's secret database."

 "…"

 "S-Sofia, what did you just do?" For some reason, I could feel a troublesome event waiting for me before my eyes.

 "Ung? Based on the order given by Master. We are a secret unit consisting of a hundred Seawolf-class shipgirls and Master is the Flagship of the Seawolf-class unit, right?"

 "Uhuh… I did order that."

 "So, I registered a hundred Seawolf-class identities along with their military ranks."

 "Sofia, send that Sealwolf-class identities data to the main system!" I ordered.

 "Un! This is it Master!"

 "Hmm… T-This is…"

 I was at a loss for words after reading the data given by Sofia, my artificial intelligence was too active in making unnecessary improvisations!

 Inside my main system, nonsense wrapped in the reality of the Azurlane world was visible. A secret military operation carried out by the Eagle Union happened, they used children from the orphanage as experimental materials. Sofia added a little drama to the incident and gave birth to the Seawolf-class unit in the history of the Azurlane world as a True Fake Act.

 "Master?" Sofia called out to me.

 "Ung? What's wrong, Sofia?" I replied.

 "We have reached periscope depth."

 "Raise the periscope to the surface!" I ordered.

 "Ready!"

 Caaaakakakaka...

 Nggiiiiinggggg...

 "Master! Periscope is active! Displaying data in periscope view!"

 The main screen on my submarine system displayed the wavy blue ocean and a line of Royal Navy ships forming a convoy. My knowledge of the ship was limited to the shape of the funnel, the main cannon, and the shipgirls character Azurlane. However, that was enough to identify the ship.

 "Hmm... I only see the stern of the ship," I said while looking at the main screen.

 "Putting aside the size of their ships, this convoy is very fascinating," I continued.

 "Sofia, prepare the Hunter Killer Drone!"

 Responding to my command, Sofia loaded the Hunter Killer Drone into the torpedo launch tube.

 "Hunter Killer Drone, Ready!" Sofia said.

 "Fire!" I said.

 With my command, the Hunter Killer Drone launched itself onto the surface of the water and took to the air. It flew high and dove into the air towards the Royal Navy convoy. The signal emitted by the Hunter Killer Drone was a little weak because my submarine's body was below the surface of the sea. I wanted to raise my radar and ESM mast but that would give away my position.

 The Hunter Killer Drone successfully passed the Royal Navy convoy and aerial images of the line of ships were successfully sent to my submarine's system.

 "Hmmm… Let's see!"

 "Their vanguard consists of the Destroyers HMS Comet, HMS Crescent, HMS Cygnet, HMS Acasta, HMS Ardent, HMS Beagle, and HMS Bulldog."

 "The second line consists of the Light Cruisers HMS Black Prince, HMS Charybdis, HMS Dido, HMS Hermione, HMS Scylla, and HMS Sirius."

 "The third line consists of the Heavy Cruisers HMS Kent, HMS London, HMS Norfolk, HMS Shropshire, HMS Suffolk, and HMS Sussex."

 "The fourth line consists of the Battleships-type, looks like... HMS Duke of York, HMS Howe, HMS King George V, and HMS Prince of Wales."

 "The fifth column consists of Battleships HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney."

 "The sixth column consists of Light Aircraft Carriers HMS Perseus and HMS Theseus."

 "The final column consists of Aircraft Carriers HMS Formidable, HMS Illustrious, and HMS Indomitable."

 "Have you recorded them, Sofia?"

 "They've all been entered into our database, Master!"

 With this, we've obtained the Royal Navy's ship signatures without causing any problems.

 "Sofia, Dive 300! Continue our journey to Siren Strongholds!"

 "Yes, Master! Ah! What about the Hunter Killer Drones we just launched?"

 "Direct the Hunter Killer Drones to Siren Strongholds and switch to patrol mode to hover above them."

 "Un! Understood!"

 My submarine body began sending a small signal to the Hunter Killer Drones and dived to a depth of 300 to continue this little journey.