"Disappeared..."
Johnson murmured. The very 5 bright marks moved on the screen till just now vanished in the twinkling of an eye. He, suspecting it was caused by a breakdown of the system, operated sensors impatiently but couldn't find the disappeared bright marks again.
The other two men were also at a loss. Mizoguchi finally broke the ice after some foolish seconds had passed.
"It is of no use... The all five ships were destroyed. May be the propulsive fuel tank exploded because of the inside pressure... The marks that implies the attack of concentrated laser fire can be seen. Maybe some survivors are still alive, but it is too difficult to rescue them."
"You say a laser bombardment?", Johnson stared his eyes out.
"But... The closest approaching distance was still over 10,000 km. It was impossible to destroy all of the 5 ships..."
"Somehow they seem to have succeeded in developing a long range laser bombardment system. It was very lucky that it didn't attack us."
Then Mizoguchi said to Datz.
"We start slowing down and move to the position of the fleet. Scan the orbit of the each deployed ships and find the wreckage on which it seems the survivors board. If you find the suspected ones, forward the data one after another to me. I'll calculate the meeting orbit. And Johnson,"
Johnson, coming to himself barely, turned his eyes on Mizoguchi.
"You'll record the battle. Even it will be a raw data, we must make the data at the very moment of the bombardment. And you also check the present position and speed of the enemy. We'll make sure and transmit to the headquarters where it will go."
"Yes, sir."
"OK."
Just before the two men finished to answer Mizoguchi, the side G caused by the posture control shook the cockpit. When the shaking ceased, the sense of up and down was recalled by the G generated by the ignition of the main engine of the cruiser.
Everyone was very busy dealing with the data. Some wrecked parts of the transport fleet, which seem the survivors were on wreck founded. But any signal which implied SOS wasn't caught. When the calculation and the setting of an orbit which would approach such wrecks had finished, the emergent tasks were gone. Maybe, when it came to coming across and rescuing the survivors, they would be so busy their heads' in a spin at the battle fields business. But until then, a blank time was left for them.
Datz vaguely felt he couldn't fear the silence and said,
"Was it really a laser attack? Are you sure?"
But the other two men ignored that question because they couldn't imagine and answer what weapon the SPA had except for laser cannon. Datz himself also knew that fact enough, but he asked again after a short silence not expecting anyone answer his question.
"If it were a laser attack, they had to develop new shooting control system but radar..."
"Shut up! Be quiet. I'm thinking about."
Johnson, suddenly interrupted. And after keeping a short sullen silence, he said to Mizoguchi.
"Do you know what type of shooting control was adopted on the old battleship you mentioned? I'm concerned about that for a while and want to know whether there was a radar or not at that time."
"Radar existed at that time but it wasn't equipped to Yamato Class battleships to start with. I heard that the anti-air radar were equipped before they were sunk, but I don't know they used them to shoot or not."
Mizoguchi continued talking after a little bit considered about something.
"From Drednote class before W.W.I to the Yamato class, several types of battleships were constructed and sunk at that time. But the basic design policy was same. The battleships at that time equipped 8 or 10 main cannons, in some case 6 or 12, which was uniform caliber. They abolished all middle caliber cannons which were equipped to the battleships used before the Drednote Class battleships. They also had secondary cannons but their calibers were from 1/2 to 1/3 of that of main cannons. Moreover, 80% of main cannons were arranged in order to shoot enemies despite they were in the left or right side. In the case of Yamato Class battleships, 9 main cannons which caliber was 18 inch were arranged in file. Along the center line of the ships, divided into 3 group of 3 turret. It means they always could attack one side by turning all cannons to that direction. Can you understand?"
Two men heard silently. Both of them couldn't understand well what Mizoguchi want to say, but wanted to comprehend the episode of long range bombardment. Mizoguchi continued.
"In short, the main cannon of a battleship was loaded presupposing the salvo fire attack. The main cannons' shooting range of the Yamato Class was over 40 km. They did bombardment without radar in spite of such a long distance. It is because when the radar became to be adopted in practical use was in the midst of W.W.II. So all battleships after Drednote Class equipped the system that they could do long range bombardment by optical measurement. However it was not peculiar to the battleships.
Are you all right? It is the reason of salvo fire with the same scale cannons. If a battleship discharges salvo fires to a target, it unlikely happen that the hits would impact at the same place. They would impact in an elliptical pattern which has width and depth because of the error of accuracy of cannons, unequalness of charges, differences of constructive accuracy of moments and the twists of the bodies of battleships. This is why battleships always fire to enemies with salvo fires by same caliber cannons. The meaning of the salvo fires exists in this point, the expansion of the elliptical pattern and the covering of the enemy ship with a main cannon disperse area.
The first fire discharged to a specific distance and direction decided by optical measurement. And the second salvo fire discharged after impacts had been observed a minutes after the fire, and the distance and direction was corrected. Disperse area pattern was much deeper in depth than in width and the distance measurement error was also bigger in depth. So if the first impact was short, the angle of elevation would be increased and if impact was far, it would be decreased. And all impact observations during battles were made by optical telescope.
The reason why a battleship didn't equip middle class cannon and why their secondary cannon was too small also existed in this point. If a middle class cannon, which range was short, fired like a big cannon did, impact observation would be impossible because cloud of spray would rise in halfway of the surface of the sea.
If the first shot didn't hit, impacts would lay single to the enemy ship before long, after a several correction had been did. It was a straddle bombardment. And at that time, a lot of hits were achieved only by correcting the difference of speed and progressing direction between the enemy and hit at the same position. Same theory could be seen in the battle of fleets. If each battleship shot the target which was indicated by headquarters and measure the time the moment of firing, impact could be predicted by the distance between the enemy and could tell it from another ships impact.
This is the way to hit slots to a target which was sailing some ten km ahead at maximum speed. Salvo fires by main cannons, observation of impacts and correction. This order would be continued until a fatal damage was got."
"In short, it is feedback, isn't it?"
Johnson murmured as if the talked to himself.
"The type of laser cannon which controls shooting by radar has no feedback. Maybe, the enemy observed impacts in some way."
At the moment Mizoguchi said so, Johnson suddenly shouted.
"Infrared reaction is shifting. It changed the direction!"
The data indicated on the screen showed the enemy ship was violently adjusting its orbit. Despite such a long distance, they could see the enemy accelerating so rapidly that the infrared ray generated from its engine caused Doppler shift.
"May be it flied at 200G. I wonder why the body of it doesn't decompose."
"Just before consuming all propellant, it can get 500 G. But... what on earth it intend to do?"
All of them anxiously gazed at the movement of the enemy which got out of the scope of the searching sensors. Before long, Mizoguchi talked in a low voice.
"It'll come...to kill us..."
The other two men held their breath. All of them noticed a simple fact. There was nothing in the direction for which the enemy seemed to leave. If it aimed at returning to Jovian satellites, it had to choose the opposite direction. But the enemy chose an orbit which would cross with the guarding fleet and then go to the Jupiter. They didn't consider the possibility of a reversing pursuit with the so powerful acceleration which a manned battleship cannot do. Even if they took the possibility into consideration, there would be no possibility that they could escape by the slow guard ship.
Johnson, who couldn't talk for some seconds, soon began to input. Mizoguchi saw his action and said in a low voice.
"Stop it. You know our missiles' accelerating capacity. They can't destroy the enemy ship. It is no use."
Johnson answered in a roaring voice.
"So, you want to be easily beaten by that monster? Even if we would be beaten, I can't repress my anger until I discharge all these missiles. How about you?"
"Please be quiet. I have something to consider about."
Johnson who seemed to have something to say more, held his tongue being pressed by Mizoguchi's piercing eyes. Datz seemed to be ignoring what they were bandying with and gazed at the digital indicated numeral values of the relative speed and distance with the enemy. But it was soon made known that he did so because he was so faithful to his duty but couldn't avert his eyes from them like a small animal which was stared by a beast of prey.
The enemy already entered into the scope of radar searching. It was approaching and accelerating more and more. Only a few minutes was left until it approached to the closest. Johnson, who turned ashy pale, couldn't endure silence and shouted.
"Why? Why does it happen? Why do I have to be killed by a machine only because I was on board the guard cruiser? It is nothing but a machine...not human..."
His voice soon became small and shifted to a faint murmur. Datz crossed himself, but still he couldn't turn away his eyes from the screen.
Mizoguchi was desperately thinking about. There must be a way to escape. For example, how did a small battleship which was about to be bombard by a battleship equipped big cannons manage to escape? It mustn't be sunk easily. There must be a way to escape. At the same time the advent of the gigantic battleship, the Destroyer must find a counterplot. How did they do?
Mizoguchi recollected old knowledge and tried to put it to this situation. How a Destroyer which was chased by a battleship could escape from it?
Attack by torpedo bombers? Or escape at full speed with laying down a smoke screen?
Mizoguchi wanted to give up. The enemy ship was too strong. Besides the speed of it was far faster than that of the escort ship. Laying down a smoke screen was out of the question.
No. Wait a minutes.
Mizoguchi's thinking stopped at that point. A smoke screen? A smoke screen was used for misleading a optical lay, so if I want to deceive enemy's sensors...
The sun? If I put our ship between enemy and the sun, may be...
But he noticed in next a few second that the tactics would be useless. The enemy adopted a dexterous orbit. No matter how fast the guard cruiser might accelerate, it would be unable to hide in the shadow of the sun.
No, the sun is one thing and a smoke screen is another.
Mizoguchi stared at the screen. The time left until the closest approach was shorter than a minute. He was staring at the screen.