A missile with a range of four to five hundred nautical miles was no small thing—certainly no weaker than a battleship's guns, which usually only had reliable accuracy within a few dozen nautical miles, sometimes barely ten.
As far as Hikaru knew, the world's current missile destroyers were mainly designed for air defense, and even their anti-ship missiles only had a range of two to three hundred kilometers at best.
But Changchun wasn't an anti-air missile destroyer. Her anti-shipgirl missiles were not only far more accurate than conventional anti-ship weapons, they were devastatingly precise.
The real issue was frequency. In battle, nothing mattered more than rate of attack.
"How many missiles can you fire at once? And how fast?"
Changchun held up two fingers. "Two! I can only fire two. I have to wait until both hit or explode before I can launch another set."
Hikaru frowned. That was troublesome. Unlike naval guns that could fire continuously, this was more like a bomber or torpedo plane—after one strike, it needed a long time to prepare for the next. In fact, it took even longer than a bomber's rearming cycle.
"What's the speed of your missiles?"
"At top speed, over Mach 10! Super amazing!" Changchun turned imploringly to Lexington. "See, Commander? I'm really useful! If you don't believe me, just ask Lexington-sis!"
Lexington nodded, smiling. "It's true. Changchun's firing rate is low, but the destructive power is terrifying. Against the same target, one of her missiles deals about as much damage as ten to fifteen sorties of my B-25 bombers. And what's even better—the missiles almost never miss."
Oh.
That kind of power made Hikaru take a fresh look at her.
Truth be told, Mach 10+ was several times faster than any modern naval missile, but on a battlefield of shipgirls, it wasn't actually that fast.
One Mach is 340 meters per second. Mach 10 worked out to about 6,600 knots—roughly 6,600 nautical miles per hour.
So if the enemy was two hundred nautical miles away, one of Changchun's missiles would still take two minutes to reach them. Not overly long, but not short either—an awkward middle ground between the immediacy of carrier bombers and battleship shells.
Still, the overwhelming power and accuracy more than compensated for the drawbacks.
As a defensive shipgirl, Changchun was more than qualified.
She kept trying to emphasize her strengths.
"I can also fire my guns! They're not weaker than a destroyer's or light cruiser's," she glanced at Helena, her voice dropping uncertainly, "probably."
Historically, the light cruiser Helena was a famous member of the "many-turret cult." Beyond her "Intelligence Analysis," Helena's other ability, "Six-Inch Autocannons," allowed her to lock onto three targets at once in night battles—even more than the "BIG SEVEN."
Her firepower was naturally at heavy cruiser level. Compared to that, Changchun couldn't help but feel a bit self-conscious.
But then she suddenly brightened, bouncing up. "Oh right! I also know two special tactics—Full Deck Assault and Data Link. They can boost the firepower of carriers and battleships in the fleet by a full seven points!"
Yamato was left dumbstruck.
From the moment she arrived on this island, she had been shocked again and again.
The old saying went: "After three days apart, you must look at a scholar with new eyes." And indeed, every time Yamato left Hikaru's Naval District for a few days, she returned to find new surprises.
That little girl in a two-piece swimsuit—Yamato had recognized her identity the first time she saw her.
On her left thigh and at her collar were insignia, and the one at her collar was a cartoonish bull snorting air from its nose—a blatant sign of her identity as the "Bull of Scapa Flow."
U-47. One of the rarest submarine shipgirls, and even among submarines, one of the most legendary and powerful.
And the slender girl who was always giggling foolishly—judging by her build, she was a light cruiser shipgirl. At her collar hung a silver cross. Yamato had already guessed she was from the German line.
Sure enough, Hikaru had called her Leipzig. Yamato's guess was right.
Leipzig herself wasn't a particularly strong shipgirl, but she had one rare trait: she almost never manifested on her own. Among wandering shipgirls, sightings of Leipzig were exceedingly rare—even Yamato couldn't help glancing at her twice.
Neither Leipzig nor U-47 were weak. In fact, compared to Leipzig, it was the little U-47 that Yamato truly feared.
Once, she might have thought it was just an illusion. Now she understood.
Those two shipgirls' training levels were definitely higher than hers.
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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