Reich Marshal of the Belkan Reich

RM Vol 3: For a World without Boundary – Chapter 47: Consequence of Power

Opening her eye, Yuki looks around the CIC. "Time?"

"One minute and counting." Bryn replied. "Marshal, shall we delay the attack?"

Yuki shakes her head. "Negative, Overseer has enough leeway as is. Beside..." The Marshal comes to a viewing port, taking in the view of two carrier strike groups. "The fleet is already engaging."

To emphasize Yuki's words the VLS tubes aboard Belkan surface vessels and submerged submarines start opening up. At once, multiple columns of fire appear until the entire Taranto harbor is covered in a low-hanging smoke cloud. A collective wave of missiles has been cold-launched, shooting upward before their RCS thrusters kicked in to reorient the missile bodies. Properly aligned, the boosters then ignite and send the missile screeching toward their target. With the surface-launched missiles away, the underwater-launched missiles break out from beneath the waves and follow behind their brethren. All in all, nearly a hundred cruise missiles have been launched in what must have been the most expensive salvo in history. But that's not all.

Flying high up in the air is over 250 warplanes belonging to a mix of Air Force and Naval Air Force. Phantoms, Harriers, Skyraiders, Ospreys... Belka ain't pulling any punch here. Armed to the teeth, these aircraft immediately unleash their ordinance the moment the engage order is given. That said, they launch their ordinances at a stand-off distance, meaning missiles and guided bombs. Nevertheless, just the sheer amount of their payload is more than a match to the cruise missiles launched by the warships.

On the ground, emplaced artillery positions of the 501st airborne pitch in to add even more firepower. After directly witnessing the valor of their own Pathfinders, these 501st soldiers are now out for blood, firing everything they have at the dome whether it's normal HE, cluster rounds, or thermobaric rockets.

Better yet, AWACS and ship-borne CICs combine their battlefield telemetry together, planning the deployment of each and every single munition being used, thus utilizing them to peak efficiency. The calculation power required to do this has been enormous, but the end result would be well worth it. Because they are not aiming to just poke a hole into the Archangels dome. Oh no, they want to wipe it out, the entire dome, in one go. This means it's not a directional attack, it's an omni-direction, synchronized attack. The demons will never know what hit them until it's too late.

This is also why overkill is not just a fear, it's a certainty. If Outlaw 2-6 hasn't been extracted in a few seconds, they stand the risk of being hit by straight bombs and missiles. Fortunately for them all, The last of the extraction team has made it back through Sirin's portal, with Overlord Yuki being the first to know. The Marshall heaves a breath she has been holding before giving a nod to the officer who has been reporting on the good news.

2-6 is now on the right side of the line, and not a moment too soon too. Trails of ordinances can be seen coming down on the Archangels dome from all angles. Soon enough, countless numbers of Archangel-class demons are evaporated as a film of explosions, big and small, swallows them all. Missiles, both anti-tank and thermobaric, maim if not kill the demons outright. While bombs blast groups of demons apart, sending parts of them everywhere. Cluster shells disperse into bomblets, puncturing holes into the formation. Cruise missiles though, hit the hardest, obliterating everything in their paths no matter how thick the layers upon layers of demons are. As expected, there are many cases of overkill, with missiles and bombs going stray and hitting the ground or even the other end of the dome.

But they accomplish the job required of them splendidly and that's justified the carte blanche for Yuki.

"Evac the airspace as planned, and get me the Captain of the RMS Tirpitz, now." Yuki ordered, earning many nods in the CIC.

A few seconds later, the comms officer reports. "They're in the net, Marshal."

Yuki then speaks up. "Captain, I trust you have everything ready."

"Affirmative, Marshal." Came the voice on the other end. "We're ready." The male voice spoke again as if to emphasize the matter.

"Good." Yuki then takes a deep breath before continuing. "Prepare for the deployment of Tactical Solution 0-8-1-6."

"Standby..." Responded the Captain of the Tirpitz. "Authenticate Tactical Solution 0-8-1-6."

Yuki says with a level tone. "Authenticate Blaze, read back."

The Captain responds in a grave voice. "Blaze." He then falls silent for a couple of seconds. "May the Goddess have mercy."

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Over on the bridge of the Tirpitz, the Captain calms his nerves with a breath before turning around, saying. "Authenticate Blaze! Spin up Tac-missile 1 and 2! Transfer target package 3-Charlie-24!"

"Aye, Captain!" Responded to the XO in the CIC. "Authenticate Blaze! Target package 3-Charlie-24! Loading Minibreves into cells 1 and 2! Opening cells 1 and 2!" The entire CIC falls into a hubbub of activity, mostly to ensure everything proceeds without a hitch, partly to mask the anxiety about the act they're about to do.

The XO then moves to a safe mounted on the wall of the CIC. Inputting a password combination that's only known to a selected few aboard the dreadnought Tirpitz, the XO opens the safe and brings out a red handle. The handle is, in fact, a trigger of sorts connected to the fire control system of the Tirpitz by a thick cable.

Turning around to face the Captain with a face full of severity, the XO reports. "Minibreves 1 and 2, ready for launch!"

The Captain stills his breathing at the report, a reminder to himself in a manner of speaking. Minibreve, a 30-kiloton WMD that uses a combination of runes and explosive materials to facilitate clean destruction of a target from this half of the world. And the Captain now has the dreadful honor to use two of them at once. Though the target is by no means an innocent one, using this weapon will no doubt set a frightening precedence. How it will shape the future of warfare is yet to be seen.

The Captain just wishes that these WMDs wouldn't become a weapon of eternal damnation in his lifetime. War is already dreadful enough as it is.

Biting the proverbial bullet on this one, the Captain gives but a single word. "Fire."

Then the XO pulls the trigger.

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Cold-launching from Tirpitz's amidship VLS cells are the two Minibreve WMDs. Once reoriented, the boosters kick in, carrying the missiles to Mach 0.96 and toward their target.

"And the deadliest weapons to known to man are now away..." It's unclear who said that, but it would later become the sentence that went down in history.

With muted expressions, those in the CICs and in the air track the missiles either through video feeds or radars. Now with the dome being a no-factor, the missiles fly through the airspace unimpeded and soon dive down on the hateful pink core that has been nothing but an eyesore for all. And then...

The world goes white as the sound of thunderous rage deafens all other sounds, just before a wall of force flings everything away from its rightful places.

The destruction has been near-instantaneous. The dominant effect of the Minibreves is the same physical damage mechanisms as conventional explosives, but the energy produced by a combined 60-kiloton explosion is millions of times more per gram and the temperatures reached are in the tens of megakelvin. If the shockwave hasn't destroyed everything already, then the heat will, turning everything to fine ash or glass.

To some, the WMDs have become nothing but the shattering of the planet and the blinding light of unrestricted malevolence. A weapon of absolute dominance and doom to all.

And Belka is right on the path to proliferate it. A clean-cut weapon to stamp out nothing but the hardest of resistance to their plan, their cause, their ideals.

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