... March ... 1949 ...
... Kronstadt ...
... Main Base of the Baltic Fleet ...
The atmosphere in the headquarters was, to put it mildly, oppressive. Admirals Golovko, Galler, and Lavchenko, along with several junior officers and a couple of Kansen, stood in a spacious room, a detailed map spread out before them on a large, massive table.
The war with the Sirens, an unknown enemy that seemed to have come from nowhere, had been raging for about a year and a half now. With their invasion, maritime trade, along with all logistics and the economy, had almost immediately ground to a halt.
The Cold War, which had just begun, fizzled out before it could properly ignite. Completely unexpectedly, England, the USA, and Japan found themselves blockaded, a situation that threatened them with, if not complete destruction, then serious losses. Siren ships, appearing here and there, sank civilian vessels and attacked coastal cities. While the USA could still sustain itself, Foggy Albion and the Land of the Rising Sun were under real threat of annihilation.
In Germany, uprisings erupted at the start of the war, organized by those who would later be called Siren Cultists. At first, they were quite successful, but once the element of surprise was lost, the armed forces of the Soviet Union, America, and England managed to defeat the main forces of the cultists, driving them underground. Following this, Germany was unified under a single government that took a neutral stance.
On top of all this, the Kansen, who before the Siren invasion needed a crew for more or less full functionality, suddenly lost all need for one. Many naval sailors immediately found themselves out of work, though not for long, as they were redirected to civilian vessels or guard boats and small gunboats that served as coastal defenders. No one wanted to send live sailors out to sea.
The first year, maybe a little more, was spent primarily on attempts to unite forces. During that year, the First and Second Battles of the North Sea took place, where the forces of France and Germany tried to break through to the shores of Foggy Albion.
The Battle of Gibraltar, where small forces of the Royal Navy, the Mediterranean squadron of France, German submarines, and the remnants of the Spanish fleet held the defense against the Siren fleets.
The Egyptian Campaign, which almost became a disaster for the Italian Navy, had it not been for the arriving allies.
The Kuril Operation, in which the combined, small Pacific Fleet of the USSR and the Second Squadron of the American Fleet, with support from the Chinese Navy, fought to open corridors to the Japanese shores along the Kuril Ridge, Sakhalin, and Tsushima.
By the end of the year, many of these operations were, one way or another, completed. England, albeit partially, was freed from the blockade. Egypt and, accordingly, the Suez Canal were controlled by Azur Lane, an organization that essentially represented the unified command of the fleets. Japan also partially resumed supplies. However, the Sirens had not yet been expelled from Gibraltar.
The Soviet Navy, strangely enough, found itself in a rather difficult situation, and the operations conducted by the Soviet fleet during this time were mostly defensive.
In the Arctic Ocean, where the USSR had three battleships, this was simultaneously excessive and insufficient. Two would have been plenty, because they couldn't operate far from fleet bases without air cover. As a result, the fighting took such a turn that to go on the offensive against the Mirror Seas, aircraft carriers were needed, not battleships, which, in the absence of long-range aviation, were forced to defend the coast.
Because of this, the Soviet government began negotiations with the British Admiralty for the temporary transfer of at least one aircraft carrier; until then, the Northern Front was pinned to the coast.
The Black Sea was also quite contentious from all points of view. The Mirror Seas located within it were positioned in such a way that they threatened all port cities, both of the Union and Turkey. But that was only half the trouble. The Sea of Marmara was blocked. According to intelligence, there were at least three Mirror Seas there, completely excluding the passage of any vessels. A threat also loomed over Istanbul.
All this time, the Black Sea Fleet, which consisted of only two battleships, one heavy cruiser, four 68-K type cruisers, two 26 and 26-BIS project cruisers, and several ships under construction whose Kansen were not yet ready for battle, and the hulls of "Reparations" ships whose Kansen had not been summoned, was busy parrying enemy attacks and making sorties into the Mirror Seas with light forces for reconnaissance. An operation to crush the enemy was being prepared for the new year of 1949, but until that time, the Black Sea sailors continued to gather strength.
And then there was the Baltic Fleet... After the Great War, the command of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet began redeploying forces from Kronstadt to Kaliningrad and Riga. Leningrad and Kronstadt remained the command center and main shipyards, but the fleet's forces were now distributed among other ports. Because of this, by the start of the war with the Sirens, only Sovetsky Soyuz, Kronstadt, Tallinn, Poltava, Gangut, Petropavlovsk, and several smaller cruisers, destroyers, and submarines remained in Leningrad.
All the others were at the bases in Kaliningrad, Tallinn, and Riga. The fleet was split into two parts. All transport routes were cut, and the cities of the Gulf of Finland were under threat of attack.
Throughout 1948, the Baltic Fleet command sent submarines on reconnaissance missions into this Mirror Sea, gradually mapping it. Slowly, after many sorties, and damage to the hulls and rigging of the Kansen submariners, the positions of floating batteries and minefields began to appear on the map. Simultaneously, the submarines themselves covered their hulls with marks of sunk Siren ships.
Nevertheless, the situation was very difficult. In the fleet headquarters, at a meeting where admirals and flagship Kansen had gathered, a heated discussion of further actions was boiling over. Unfolding the detailed map, compiled previously with blood and sweat by the submarines, those present studied the Siren positions in the Gulf of Finland.
"This... is not good," Lev Galler muttered under his breath, his face stern, clearly twisted with tension. He looked nervously at the new marks on the map, added by the submarines Iskra, Pravda, and Zvezda, which had returned from a combat mission just three days ago.
According to their intelligence, the place where there had previously been only one anti-ship artillery installation was now bristling with three such guns. As soon as this became known, the entire command was turned upside down.
"If it's really strengthening, then sooner or later it will become impregnable!" Arseniy Golovko slammed his fist on the table. He bared his teeth, looking at the picture laid out before them all. "At this rate, our main fleet forces will be blockaded again! Just like during the war with the Germans."
"Gentlemen, we must not give in to emotions," the stern, cold voice of Admiral Gordey Lavchenko sounded in the small hall. He was calm, as always, but behind the external calm, one could see the anger building inside him. "If we make a mistake, the Baltic Fleet could cease to exist altogether. Therefore, I believe it is necessary to begin preparing a plan of action in light of the new circumstances."
"True," Lev Galler agreed with a nod, tapping his finger slowly on the table, lost in thought. "One thing is clear: we can delay no longer."
A quiet tapping of a cane attracted the attention of everyone in the room, though the admirals, out of old habit, didn't show it. Sovetsky Soyuz, the lead ship of Project 23, flagship of the Baltic Fleet of the USSR, stepped forward, approaching the table. De jure, she was on the same level as the admirals in terms of authority and rank; de facto, it was her commands that the fleet's Kansen carried out.
"I agree with Comrade Galler," she said slowly, studying the map. "Unfortunately, given the new data, we can no longer remain on the defense."
"Soyuz," Golovko addressed her warily, "you understand what that means then."
"You're suggesting we attempt a breakthrough and try to collapse this... sea, correct?" Lavchenko asked in a calm voice, also looking up at Soyuz and Kronstadt, who stood like an intendant behind her flagship.
"Correct," Soyuz said with a heavy sigh, casting a quick glance at the map on the table. "But this risk is understood. Or do you have something else to propose?"
An oppressive, icy silence hung in the room. In an instant, the air became so thick it seemed you could cut it like jelly. The admirals exchanged glances. Finally, Galler spoke.
"Soyuz! We understand this. It's just that since all this began, and you girls became able to go to sea without a crew... However, we worry for each of you." Lev Galler was already old, which made his speech somewhat like the stories a grandmother or grandfather tells their grandchildren, but those who knew his history understood that something much greater lay behind it.
Soyuz knew. A kind, yet sad smile played on her lips.
"We understand that, believe me. But, in the end, this is our job." She let the words hang in the air before stating, in a more serious tone, "Well, let's return to the discussion." Everyone nodded. "As you said, comrades, we can delay no longer. We must break this blockade as soon as possible. What are your proposals?"
The room then plunged into a boiling discussion that lasted more than four hours and ended only at sunset. The meeting concluded with the formulation of a breakthrough strategy, and Soyuz could now prepare her subordinates.
******
At noon the next day, in the small headquarters—a place that could quite rightly be called a gathering hall for Kansen—almost all the girls currently in Kronstadt and Leningrad gathered. Poltava, Gangut, and Petropavlovsk, three Kansen of the "Sevastopol" class, who had long been the strongest in the entire Soviet fleet. Two of them had previously sustained serious injuries, one during the Civil War, the second in the Great War. The cruisers Chkalov and Zheleznyakov of Project 68-K, which had recently been commissioned in Leningrad. The cruiser Tallinn, the leaders Leningrad, Minsk, and another half-dozen destroyers. These were all the forces Sovetsky Soyuz possessed. The submarines didn't count; they weren't planned to be taken on this raid, just like the old-timers, such as Pyotr Velikiy, who also remained in the city.
"I will be extremely brief," Sovetsky Soyuz said in a steely tone, sweeping her gaze over those present. "The situation is extremely serious. The Mirror Sea that separates us from the rest of the Baltic is strengthening. According to our operational intelligence, the enemy is fortifying, and quite quickly at that."
She fell silent, lowering her eyes to the floor, continuing to think how to proceed. At that moment, as if seeing her problem, Poltava's voice rang out.
"Soyuz," she said with an eager smile on her face and bright pink eyes shining, "I take it we have a major operation planned..."
"Ha! A good fight, especially for the benefit of the motherland, is never superfluous!" Gangut grinned, with the same cheerful smile as always, punching one fist into the other. "When do we set out, comrade?!"
Petropavlovsk and Tallinn seemed infected by the optimism of these two. The last of the Sevastopol class and the German girl smirked. Following them, Chkalov and Zheleznyakov perked up, and then the destroyers—Odaryonny, Otvazhny, Obraztsovy, and Otlichny, as well as the destroyer Opytny.
Strength and resolve unexpectedly filled Sovetsky Soyuz's chest, and she raised her head confidently, running her eyes over all those present. A smile appeared on her face.
"Good," she said, raising her left hand, free from the cane, up. "Kronstadt, the maps, please."
"Right away," Kronstadt replied immediately, stepping out from behind Soyuz and proceeding to lay out the maps on the table.
The first was an ordinary map of the Baltic Sea, albeit with a few rough strokes made with a simple pencil. The second map was almost entirely drawn in pencil on simple graph paper. Here and there, various strange symbols were visible, difficult to identify if one didn't know their meaning.
Soyuz leaned on the table with her hands, setting her cane aside. Her hand moved across the map, stopping at one point.
"As you know, the Mirror Sea is located east of the island of Longem and the Käsmu peninsula, west of the island of Gogland. It prevents us from passing into the rest of the Baltic. Our goal is to enter this sea and destroy it." She pointed to the pencil marks that cocooned the Mirror Sea. "Mine and net barriers are placed here. According to our observations, the enemy is unaware of the existence of a passage through which we can reach them."
"That's dangerous..." Tallinn concluded, leaning over the map like everyone else. "Could it be a trap? The Sirens have shown themselves to be very cunning and treacherous."
"Of course, that can't be ruled out," Soyuz agreed calmly, though somewhat dejectedly. "But if they did know about it, they didn't even try to use it. According to the latest submarine raids, there are no special fortifications or minefields in the passage area."
Everyone nodded in agreement, pondering what they had just heard. After a few minutes, Minsk spoke up.
"We enter this sea—what awaits us there?" she asked, squeezing between the taller girls and looking at them, shaking her head from side to side. "What?" she exclaimed when the three Sevastopol sisters turned their gaze on her, a gaze that literally pressed her into the floor. "Do we know anything about what awaits us there? Or are we going on luck, blindly?"
"Actually, we have all that," Soyuz answered her, signaling Kronstadt to roll up the Baltic map, leaving only the hastily drawn map of the Mirror Sea. "Our submarines have worked very hard, so we have a map of seventy percent of this Mirror Sea's territory." She pointed her finger at the center, where a multi-pointed star was drawn. "This is the citadel. The main fortress of the entire Mirror Sea, what holds it together. If we destroy it, the sea will disappear, along with the obstacles for our fleet."
"According to all the data we have, the Sirens don't like variety. A similar scheme was observed during the Kuril Operation. And we have a strategy for breaking such a defense," Kronstadt spoke from behind Soyuz, folding her arms across her chest and touching her fingers to her chin. "But only during the battle for the Kurils, we had American and Japanese battleships on our side, who broke through the defenses and firepoints." She paused, glancing at Soyuz. "How many battleships were there?"
"More than a dozen," Soyuz said in a cold voice, nodding her head. "We, in essence, have only five." Unexpectedly, someone coughed, making Soyuz look up from the maps. She was met with a skeptical look from the three Sevastopol-class girls, who were literally oozing misunderstanding. "You're not going to deny that Kronstadt isn't much inferior to you in armament, are you?" she asked in a tired voice.
The three sisters exchanged glances before nodding in unison.
"We don't deny that, it's just that by classification she's a heavy cruiser," Poltava said with a shrug, pretending to cover her eyes. "So, we agree."
"Thank God," Soyuz exhaled, a strained, exhausted smile on her face. "Returning to our topic, Kronstadt is right. We have far fewer forces than at the Kurils, and certainly fewer than the Germans and French had at Jutland. Unfortunately, we have no other choice. Either we break through now, or Kronstadt and Leningrad will be under threat for the entire war... Or until our ally friends decide to help us." Soyuz frowned, leaning over the maps again.
The others again followed her example, leaning over the map. Soyuz continued to move her hand across the map.
"From the intelligence data, we see that the defense there is more or less uniform; apparently, they first create an inner defense perimeter and gradually expand it. Considering this, it doesn't matter much from which side we break through. Therefore, it's better to go immediately from the point where we emerge." She stopped, pointing to one of the notations on the outer contour. "This is the place where our submarines emerge when passing into this sea. So, it would be most correct for us to break through from here."
Poltava quickly ran her eyes from the point where Soyuz's hand was to the citadel. She quickly counted all the points between these two locations.
"Wow, five lines of defense... This means we'll have to destroy not only the nearest firepoint but also the adjacent ones! That's at least a dozen and a half firepoints," she said, putting her fingers to her lips and looking up at Soyuz, who nodded.
"Correct. To avoid crossfire and getting caught in a kill zone, we will need to destroy three lines of firepoints on each defense line. One heavy battery on each line, plus smaller ones, like anti-mine ones. And ships, of course," Soyuz replied, pointing her finger at the points they needed to destroy.
"And what's our tactic? We don't have the same forces the Japanese and Americans had."
"As our intelligence says, and also the experience of Baku during the Kuril Operation, the basis of their defense is twin-gun turret installations of large caliber," Kronstadt began, placing on the table a roughly made drawing of what could be mistaken for a monitor's gun mount, like the Erebus, only with a streamlined shape and sharp edges. A massive turret on a wide barbette stood on a platform emerging from the water. "Eyewitnesses report that their shot is roughly equivalent to a gun caliber of 11 to 13 inches."
Kronstadt looked around at the others, and it wasn't like they were very happy to hear this. Especially dimmed were the red eyes of Tallinn, whose sister, Blücher, had died in a shootout with a similar battery.
"But," she continued, "these installations are quite slow. Therefore, if we don't dawdle, thanks to our rigging, we can almost completely eliminate the probability of being hit."
"That's true," Soyuz nodded. "We work like this: Kronstadt and I go in the vanguard and take the hit from the heavy guns." She raised her head, looking at the three sisters. "Gangut, Petropavlovsk, Poltava," she listed them, pausing her gaze on each for a moment, "you will follow behind us. Your goal is to destroy any firepoints." The three sisters exchanged glances with confident, sly smiles, then nodded in unison. "Tallinn, Chkalov, Zheleznyakov—your main goal is to cover them from attacks by enemy ships. Don't let them get close and interfere." Soyuz shifted her gaze to the destroyers. "You have the same role. You must protect them. If possible, you should deliver counterattacks against the enemy, but that's secondary."
"Aye aye!" seven destroyers chorused, jumping to attention.
"Clear. Understood," Tallinn nodded with a slight smile, turning her gaze to Chkalov and Zheleznyakov. "Well, girls, ready to have some fun at sea?"
"You bet?!"
"Of course!"
The Chapayev sisters replied with equally sly smiles. However, this was to be expected from them, so no one was surprised.
Gangut hugged her two sisters, who were a little surprised but not opposed.
"When do we set out, comrade?!" Gangut asked with a mischievous smile.
Soyuz removed her hand from the table, quickly picked up her cane with a swift motion. It spun around its axis, rose slightly above the ground, ended up in Soyuz's hand, and struck the wooden floor with a dull thud.
"Well then," Soyuz began with a confident smile, "in that case, rest, ladies. We set sail in three days. Until then, you are on leave, and the hulls will be prepared for battle."
"Aye aye!" everyone said in unison.
Soyuz nodded and, turning on her heels, walked towards the exit. Kronstadt followed her, gathering all the maps from the table. Already with her hand on the doorknob, Soyuz turned around.
"Ah, and please, don't be like the Sardinians. No need to celebrate victory before the campaign begins," she added with a smile. Poltava and her sisters immediately laughed, and Tallinn joined them.
Leaving her charges, her battle sisters, in high spirits, Soyuz exited.
"Do you think we'll succeed?" Kronstadt's voice, following her, was calm. "We really don't have that many forces."
"I know," Soyuz nodded with a deep, heavy sigh. Her cane continued to tap rhythmically on the ground as she walked forward. "As much as I would like to tell you that we will definitely win, we really are short on forces. This should be enough, but... but we won't have a second attempt."
"Yeah, I understand," Kronstadt agreed as they walked along the embankment. Waves, small, barely pushed by the wind, maneuvering across the ice-hidden water, beat against the hulls of the ships at anchor.
Even from this distance, she could see life bustling around the hulls. Various cargoes and supplies were being directed towards the hulls of the four battleships, and numerous workers crowded around the sides, checking the readiness and fastenings of the armor for the upcoming battle. There were also some painters fussing about, touching up the paint on the ship.
"This applies to you too, by the way," Soyuz said, stopping for a moment and turning to Kronstadt, who, unnoticed by herself, had stopped.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" she asked, shaking her head.
"About rest before the campaign. Relax a bit," Soyuz shrugged before starting to move again. "I also have a few things to do... It's been a long time since I talked to my sisters," she added in a melancholic, sad voice, lowering her head to the ground. Kronstadt couldn't see it, but she knew for sure that Soyuz's eyes had dimmed at that moment.
Kronstadt thought for a moment, raising her eyes to the sky, then, nodding to herself, called out to Soyuz.
"Say hello to Rossiya, Belarus, and Ukraina for me."
"Okay, I will," Soyuz replied before they parted ways.
******
Three days later, the port complex was unusually lively. Many onlookers came out onto the embankments of Kronstadt and Leningrad to watch the rare spectacle.
Fifteen large ships—four battleships, four cruisers, and seven destroyers—lined up as if for a parade. Standards proudly fluttered in the oncoming sea wind. The gun turrets were trained to the zero position.
On the pier stood the girls, preparing to descend to the water, and before them, paying respects, stood the admirals along with an honor guard. All the words, all the inspiring speeches had already been said earlier; only brief farewells remained, similar to those that took place when submariners were seen off on another mission during the Great War.
Finally, to the sound of a military orchestra, saluting, Soyuz, along with the others, stepped onto the water, heading towards their hulls. After a few minutes, smoke began to pour from the funnels of all the ships. With a loud ship's horn, Soyuz moved off, followed by answering blasts from Poltava, Gangut, and Petropavlovsk, then picked up by the cruisers, and then the destroyers, whose horns were much thinner than the others. The St. Andrew's flag and the naval Guards flag were hoisted on Soyuz's mast.
For the average person, this was just a beautiful sight, but among the senior and mid-level command staff, those who worked and communicated with the Kansen, and the Kansen themselves understood their meaning.
"Today the fate of the fatherland is decided! Do not disgrace the memory and feats of our ancestors! Do everything that depends on us and even more!" That is what these two flags, flown together, meant.
Admiral Lev Galler, Admiral Arseniy Golovko, Admiral Gordey Lavchenko, the honor guard assembled from officers and sailors of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, the military orchestra, the remaining Kansen, and all the residents of Leningrad and Kronstadt watched as the massive, awe-inspiring ships slowly headed into the open sea.
Soyuz stood in the wheelhouse of her hull, looking at the quiet waters of the Gulf of Finland through the viewing glass. Kronstadt had long since disappeared behind her, and only the shores of the Gulf of Finland made themselves known, framing the sea surface. She turned around again, checking the maps she had.
"Approaching the start of the minefields. Line up behind me in a wake column. Don't spread out too much," she said over the comms. Soon, confirmations came from all the girls.
She couldn't see it, but she knew for sure that a reorganization was happening behind her. They were forming into a single file column, and only the destroyers, standing almost side by side, almost touching, went in pairs.
Minefield maps were on every ship. They were issued to each Kansen personally so that, just in case some incident didn't happen if someone went off course, because none of them were insured against their own minefields, which were laid to prevent a Siren breakthrough.
That's why the operation time was chosen. They approached the beginning of the minefields shortly before noon, so as not to end up like during the Tallinn Passage, when ships reached the most dangerous sections only closer to evening.
Uninformed people would be surprised: why go on the hulls and not on the water in rigging? The thing is, prolonged use of rigging was quite exhausting, and strength was needed for the upcoming battle. That is why almost all actions involving transition or closing in were carried out by Kansen while on their hulls.
The battleship reduced speed for safer maneuvers. The following ships did the same.
"I hate mines," Petropavlovsk's irritated voice came over the radio. "I hate bombs. I hate everything that can suddenly explode."
"We understand, sister," Poltava's sympathetic voice sounded in response to her sister.
Everyone knew perfectly well what had happened during the Great War. When an enemy bomber, breaking through the AA fire, dropped a bomb on the forward turret. Due to the damage received, Petropavlovsk was out of action for more than a year, and then suffered from pain, both phantom and real, for about two more years. Later, after the war, during the brief period of peace, it seemed to have passed, but as it turned out, it wasn't so. Panic attacks, waking up with rapid breathing—this became the norm for Petropavlovsk, and her sisters couldn't help but know about it, couldn't help but worry and be concerned.
"We'll be out of here soon," Poltava added, closing her eyes, immediately supported by Gangut.
"True!" her cheerful voice, as always, made everyone who heard it feel confident. "We don't have long left, and then a good fight awaits us!"
"And that's true," Tallinn also joined the conversation with her semi-sarcastic tone.
"Kronstadt," Soyuz interrupted everyone in a much calmer tone, "Gogland Island is dead ahead. Course to the left of it. Maintain wake formation. We've exited the second strip of minefields, but better not to risk it."
"Understood, Soyuz," Kronstadt replied in the same serious and focused voice.
Over the next hour, the ships, moving at a speed of about eighteen knots, reached the first line of the mine barrier. With some trepidation, Soyuz entered the minefield. Despite having maps, searching for something hidden in the sea was still quite problematic. Having passed a little more than a kilometer and making sure there were no mines on the path, the others followed her, gradually catching up.
Gogland Island ended up behind them and gradually began to disappear over the horizon when they finally overcame the first line of the mine barrier and found themselves on relatively clear water. They had a little time before entering the Mirror Sea.
"Reform into attack position," Soyuz commanded over the general comms as her hull almost came to a stop.
Then everyone acted like a single clockwork mechanism. Kronstadt took a position approximately one hull length behind and to the right of Soyuz. The sisters Gangut, Petropavlovsk, and Poltava lined up in a row behind Soyuz and Kronstadt, keeping some distance from them. Chkalov and Zheleznyakov took positions on the flanks; between the first and second lines was Tallinn, who, thanks to some protection, could briefly take a hit. With her were Minsk and Leningrad. The other five destroyers were in free positions to avoid maneuver constraints.
"Why don't we just enter the Mirror Sea in rigging right away?" Chkalov's voice came over the radio.
"If we do that, the same thing might happen as at Suez," Soyuz replied.
******
Poltava stood, like everyone else, on the captain's bridge of her hull. She, like all her sisters, had undergone modernization, but it wasn't completely identical for everyone. The appearance of her superstructure was slightly different from the others.
As soon as the word "Suez" was uttered, she, like everyone else, immediately remembered the reports and news about what had happened in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Then, in the first stage of the war, a large naval formation gathered off the coast of Egypt, consisting of the British Mediterranean, part of the French Mediterranean, an Italian squadron under the flag of Roma, and parts of the Austrian fleet, represented in particular by the three Radetzky sisters.
Then, whether due to inexperience or a desire to do everything with maximum speed, the Italian girls, who were the first to reach the Mirror Sea, entered it in their rigging. What happened next was almost unknown, but Roma herself later said that if they had entered on their hulls, it wouldn't have happened.
From the scraps of information available, the Mirror Sea abruptly changed its structure, turning into a churning storm. Meanwhile, the gun turrets continued to fire steadily. Finding themselves on an unfamiliar battlefield under enemy fire, the Italian Kansen were forced to defend themselves, waiting for the arrival of the other forces.
To avoid this, an instruction was issued to all fleets that entry into a Mirror Sea should only be made on hulls, which, as it turned out, were more resistant to unexpected changes in water currents.
The memory of all this flashed through Poltava's mind as she cast a quick glance at her sisters standing to her right. At that moment, a quiet horn sounded across the sea surface, accompanied by Soyuz's voice over the radio.
"Beginning."
She saw Soyuz gradually begin to accelerate her hull again. Smoke poured a little more strongly from her smokestacks. Kronstadt followed her, then Tallinn, and then she herself fed more heat into her engines, gradually gaining speed.
At one point, the bow of Soyuz seemed to tear reality apart. It was... a strange sight, similar to a cracked glass bleeding red-purple colors. After a few seconds, Soyuz's hull completely disappeared from view. Kronstadt followed immediately after her, then Tallinn with her retinue of destroyers. Finally, Poltava herself and her sisters also approached this point.
Poltava watched in amazement as the bow of her hull disappeared into the rift in space, along with the bow anti-aircraft guns, then the first turret. She clenched her eyes shut when it was time for her to pass through the portal into the Mirror Sea. She didn't know what to expect, what should happen, because no one ever wrote about this in any reports. Or she just hadn't searched well enough.
"Poltava, sister. How are you there?" Gangut's voice sounded in her ear. Poltava opened her eyes and, brushing her long pink-purple bangs from them, discovered she was looking at the floor. Quickly raising her eyes, she was finally able to see where she and everyone else had ended up.
"I'm here... yes," she said in an enchanted voice, looking out the window of the captain's bridge.
What she was looking at was as amazing as it was unnatural. Where a moment ago there had been a flat sea surface, there were now separately floating pieces of blue ice covered with white snow caps. They seemed to be standing still, but if you looked closely, you could see they were slowly drifting, and not with the current, but somehow unnaturally.
In the gaps between the ice floes, where there was open water, those very stationary heavy turrets were visible. They were far enough away to seem like nothing more than dots on the sea surface, but even from this distance, they looked impressive. The silhouette of a twin-gun turret on a high barbette was visible, framed by something resembling smaller turrets, which for some reason hadn't been reported in the intelligence data. There were other platforms, much smaller, on which turrets and single guns were located, resembling the guns of Siren cruisers. In the distance, almost on the horizon, a high gray spire was visible—the goal of their entire sortie. Poltava could barely tear herself away from this view, which she was looking at with wide, violet-pink eyes, when she heard a quiet hiss from her sisters.
"U-u-uh, cursed ice! Brings back unpleasant memories. Right?" Petropavlovsk asked, and almost immediately received an affirmative answer from Gangut. Poltava knew the reason for this perfectly well. She remembered the Ice March of the eighteenth year just as well as her sisters.
The Baltic Fleet squadron had successfully penetrated the Mirror Sea in full force. Their formation hadn't changed at all. Soyuz still stood at the head, and smoke poured from her hull's funnels. They all continued to move forward.
The nearest artillery defense turret began slowly training onto the flagship. Breaking through the radio interference, the ether filled with Soyuz's voice.
"Comrades! My sisters! We have nowhere to retreat. Behind us are Leningrad, Vyborg, Kronstadt, hundreds of thousands of people! Do everything possible that depends on you!" she said in a steely tone, baring her teeth slightly.
The defensive battery spewed a cloud of fire, and a few seconds later, two shells, enveloped in an unnaturally yellow glow, crashed down on Soyuz's hull. With a sound like a train derailing, one of the shells, hitting the vertical part of the hull, ricocheted into the water, sending a column of water into the sky, which a moment later scattered onto the ship's deck. The second shell flew past.
"Fire!" Soyuz shouted, out of habit slightly thrusting her cane forward.
Immediately, in response to the shot, five ships opened fire. Petropavlovsk, Gangut, Poltava, Kronstadt, and Soyuz fired almost simultaneously, and their shells, spewed with fire and smoke from the gun barrels, rushed towards the Siren battery. The shell tracers were like falling meteors, despite the sun being almost at its zenith, which was also strange.
With a slightly delayed roar, the first shells hit the installation. For a few moments, it was quiet. The other shells had already fallen into the water or shattered against the battery's armor, sending a cloud of snow dust into the air—which for some reason hadn't melted—gunpowder smoke, and sea spray into the air, which hid the installation from view for a moment.
Everyone began preparing the next shot, and the Siren installation, when the smoke, dust, and water settled, was momentarily covered with a blue halo—an energy shield, seemingly consisting of interlocking hexagons.
The next second, when Soyuz was already ready for a new shot and raised her eyes to correct the aim, the shield flickered and immediately disappeared, and a fountain of fire shot from the roof of the turret, rising almost a hundred meters into the sky, illuminating the sea like a supernova. Then followed an explosion. The installation was torn apart, and its turret was thrown upward.
A shockwave, felt by everyone, swept across the sea surface. The destroyers, who clearly hadn't expected this, swayed. The air current blew the headwear off all the Kansen who wore it.
"Wow!" Gangut exclaimed, gazing spellbound at the pillar of fire.
"Don't get distracted! Girls, switch to rigging mode," Soyuz ordered, and her hull disappeared in a flash of light.