Chapter 31 – Bait Operation

RonTheBlackCat

I'm very sorry about the recent lack of America! I have seen everyone's complaints and thought over it. I made a mistake. I wanted to show more of the perspective of the natives and hype stuff up but I overdid it. I just felt that everything was going too fast and decided to take this approach to slow down a bit. From now on there won't be any long arcs from the natives' perspectives. From this chapter onwards, almost everything will be about America unless absolutely necessary. 

I'm sorry! Please forgive me! >_<

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https://youtu.be/8R77XN_rFh0 Don't Tread On Me by Metallica

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten it." - US Navy

April 1st, 2020 CE

Sun 1st, 196 AE

Primopolis

Emperor Arstant was with his advisors again.

“We are receiving requests for assistance from the Soane League. The Soane League Army is in tatters.”

“In our situation, we can’t do much. If the First and Fourth Army can push back these elves, then we can probably send reinforcements.”

“The Kingdom of Albea is the frontline now for them. The Subican Kingdom has bowed down and allowed the elves to occupy them as ‘allies’. So far the three kingdoms nearest to the Elven continent have been defeated.” 

“Have the United Beastmen Kingdom sent their soldiers yet?”

“The soldiers that the United Beastmen Kingdom sent to assist couldn’t beat these elves.”

There wasn’t much hope for the Soane League at this point. The United Beastmen Kingdom had the strongest soldiers in the Soane League. The Subican Kingdom was the most powerful kingdom in the Soane League. The Emperor sighed as he looked at the map. Why did this have to happen at this time? The collapse of the Mach was supposed to be the end of all the problems that the Magus faced. Now, these elves just had to come back to disturb the sweet peace that was finally accomplished after more than a century of on and off wars. Military Advisor Caius looked towards the Emperor who was becoming visibly upset.

“Don’t worry your majesty, the First and Fourth Army will begin their offensive soon. The bridges may be lost but we can use them as chokepoints.”

2001 March 21st, 2020 CE

Nashville, Tennessee

<<<“Good evening, everyone. This morning, a new continent had just appeared off the coast of the Magus Imperium. Scientists had wondered if this event was similar to what had occurred to our country.”

A satellite map of the Elven continent showed up on the top right of the screen.

“However, based on recent information we gained from the White House, it appears to be a continent that had submerged itself around 150 years ago. They have announced that further information will be revealed in the near future as it becomes confirmed.”>>>

Jack sighed. Most recent news was either minor domestic things or overall information on this world. Sometimes there were interesting major domestic incidents but that couldn’t replace the volume of news before the US was transported to this world. This world didn’t have the interconnectivity of the last. The internet also looked quite bleak. Although it was still running and all fine, quite a lot of the content was gone. 

1509 March 24th, 2020 CE

<<< “The White House has confirmed that the continent is inhabited by a nation of elves. They are also reported to be currently invading the Magus Imperium and the kingdoms on the Soane continent. The White House has not released any information about what they plan to do about this…”>>>

0814 March 27th, 2020 CE

0729 Start 57th, 196 AE

Off the coast of the Soane continent

The USS Abraham Lincoln and its carrier strike group were sailing past the north coast of the Soane continent towards the eastern tip of it. Washington had learned about the elven invasion of the Soane continent from the Magusian diplomats and decided that it was the best place to initiate contact.

Other than the aircraft carrier, the carrier strike group consisted of two Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers, six Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, and a Virginia-class submarine. This large group was meant to be seen as intimidating. Basically it was gunboat diplomacy. If they could force these Nazis to give in, the problem would be solved. 

The elven naval presence near the Soane continent was light seeing that the Kingdoms weren’t much of a threat to them. However, this didn’t mean that there were no elven units there.

The carrier strike group was fast approaching a formation of what was believed to be an elven naval formation.

The 22nd Elven Destroyer Squadron, consisting of 10 elven destroyers, patrolled a large chunk of the ocean near the Soane continent. This was in order to stop any human ships from slipping in or out. 

The radar on the destroyers indicated a large formation of ships approaching them at a high speed.

When the commander of the destroyer squadron, Captain Neldor Ralovalur, received this report, he was very surprised.

“Change into a defensive formation.”

The Kingdoms shouldn’t have any ships that could threaten them but he immediately ordered this just in case it was an actual threat. These ships definitely seemed to know where the Elven destroyers were. This could have possibly been another elven naval squadron but there wasn’t supposed to be another this far out. 

A few minutes later

Massive ships came out of the horizon towards them. 

“Unknown ships spotted starboard!”

Neldor took out his binoculars and focused on the ships. His eyes widened in shock as he said this to the others in the brig. 

“Seems to be an aircraft carrier and eight cruisers.”

Not only was there an aircraft carrier that was not Elven, but it was also a ridiculous size. 

“Ours, captain?”

Just to be sure, Captain Ralovalur looked at the giant flags of the ships. There were stripes going top to down with an alternating red and white pattern. On the top, left corner of it was a blue rectangle with white stars covering it. 

“Doesn’t seem like it.”

Captain Ralovalur’s mind was racing. As far as he knew, only they should have the technological capability to build and operate aircraft carriers. The human Empire’s navy was swept aside in a grand naval battle just a few days ago. And the humans didn’t have a single aircraft carrier. If the Empire, the supposedly most advanced civilization of humans, didn’t have aircraft carriers, then what nation was this? Was this one of the other intelligent species? The beastmen? The dwarves? They shouldn’t have the capability to build these either. According to history, the various beastmen kingdoms had been warring with the humans forever and were equally matched with the Kingdoms. The dwarves were not really plausible since they lived on the Insula Continent which was quite far away. They were also isolationists. There was also a bunch of other intelligent species but their technological capabilities were a joke. 

While they were in a line formation, the unknown ships ran parallel to them in a spread-out formation. The massive aircraft carrier was in the middle. Apprehensively,  Captain Ralovalur watched as something lifted off of the aircraft carrier. 

“Get the anti-aircraft guns up.”

According to the rangefinders, the weird flying contraption with a propeller on top hovered outside the effective firing range of the destroyer’s AA guns. It stayed there. After a few minutes, a voice seemingly came out of it. 

“...thing on? Oh… oops…”

There was silence again.

“This is the United States Navy. Our fleet has been dispatched under orders of the Government of the United States of America, a human government, to make diplomatic contact. Please send only a single small expedition boat forward for negotiations. We will send one of ours too.”

The announcer on the Seahawk equipped with the Long Range Acoustic Device didn’t quite understand why he was ordered to specifically say ‘a human government’ but he went along with it.

The flying contraption was somehow projecting a voice. It was the human Empire language.  Captain Ralovalur understood the Empire language. He was taught it in school because it was essential for an elf to understand their future slaves. What really got his attention was the phrase ‘human government’. 

Neldor looked at the massive human ships again. They stayed very far away but were still visible. He looked closely at all the cruisers. They may be the size of cruisers but they only had one to two puny singular guns at most on each of them. They seemed like old destroyers made to look like modern cruisers. Who were the humans trying to fool with this underhanded and obvious trickery? Their aircraft carrier might look big but it must also be a fake. 

“They are humans, prepare to attack!”

“Are you sure sir? We are only a destroyer squadron and they have cruisers.”

“Do not fear. Those ships may be the size of cruisers but they are only armed as well as an old destroyer. I can only see a small singular gun on most of them. They are staying far away in order to keep up this fake image.”

“Get us in range of the human fleet and annihilate them.”

The Seahawk hovering in the middle between the US carrier strike group and the Elven destroyer squadron waited for the elves to drop one of the small white boats that hung to the sides of the destroyers. Instead of dropping a boat, the Elven destroyers started to turn towards the US ships. The Seahawk immediately started to move back.

“Rear Admiral, the Elven destroyers are turning towards us. It looks like they are trying to engage us.”

“Label them as hostile. Permission to engage is granted.”

Rear Admiral Halbert Johnson nodded after he said that.

Just as expected.

Under the sea near the Elven destroyer squadron

“We have permission to engage.”

Four Mk-48 torpedoes almost simultaneously launched out of the Virginia-class submarine. They glided quietly through the sea towards the Elven destroyers. 

Captain Ralovalur stared at the human fleet. His destroyer squadron had nearly finished turning. Once his ship got into firing range, the twin 5.9-inch guns would open fire. He couldn’t wait for the possible promotion he would get once he claimed that he sunk a human fleet that had an aircraft carrier and cruisers. He had been a commander of only a destroyer squadron for ages. This was his one in a lifetime chance. Those were his last thoughts as his destroyer seemingly turned into a massive fireball. 

The Commanders of the other destroyers were stunned as they saw the lead ship and three other ships being lifted up out of the ocean and consumed in massive fireballs. The lead ship, which had their Captain onboard, was the last ship in the formation. On one of the six remaining destroyers, the destroyer Commander told the radarman and sonarman in a panic

“Enemies behind us!”

“Sir, our radars aren’t picking up anything. There’s absolutely nothing behind us.”

“What!? Then what sorcery was that?!”

At that moment, explosions seemingly occurred on all of the human cruisers. The Commanders of the destroyers quickly turned their attention to that and wondered what was happening. Did the humans blow themselves up? As the smoke on the human ships started to clear, they saw a ball of light streak towards them leaving behind a trail of clouds. 

“What is that?”

The ball of light got closer and closer. The Commanders were all in fear at what the ball of light was. If it was coming towards them and were from those wretched humans, it wasn’t a good thing. Similar orders rang out on all the destroyers.

“Evasive maneuvers!” 

The destroyers all started turning. On one of the destroyers, a sailor closely watched the ball of light. 

“Commander, it’s following us!”

The balls of light were not going in a straight line… they were turning to wherever each destroyer had moved

“Impossible! What magi…”

One of the balls of light slammed into a destroyer and seemingly vaporized it. Before long, the remaining Elven destroyers had been turned into floating scraps on the sea. 

“Seems like diplomacy failed. Tell Washington that they took the bait. The elves acted hostile immediately once we gave them our message.”