21st Century Goguryeo

January 23rd, 2024, 5:00 (Local time: 06:00)

At sea (bridge of the Paul Hamilton [DDG-1014] warship), 388 kilometers from the east end of Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Captain Landen Donovan, feeling furious after he had ended the communication with Admiral Kim Lee-won 10 minutes ago, immediately reported to the command ship of the Pacific Fleet about the communication and its contents. He also requested rights to command the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers that had been assigned to the blue team.

This was because he wanted to wash away his frustration by defeating Korea's 2nd Fleet with just the Destroyers of the blue team, once the naval warfare began.

At this, the Pacific Fleet's commander's staff gave its approval as the Pacific Fleet's commander's staff had already analyzed the power of the 2nd Fleet, and had decided that just the Destroyers of the blue team would be more than enough to defeat the 2nd fleet.

With this, Captain Landen Donovan had the right to command the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers. He left the bridge to the deputy captain and went down to the battle command room.

At that very moment, Prime Minister Uchida was declaring Japan's autonomy by announcing it through a public speech. They had sent the United States government, their ally, an official draft of the request. At this, President Trump immediately signed the draft and submitted the document to Congress. As the House of Representatives and the Senate had been waiting on the draft, it passed through both parts of Congress easily and smoothly.

It was all a well-planned out game.

This meant that President Trump, who had gotten an official request draft from Japan, had received a justification for military intervention. He immediately gave an order to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon relayed the order to the Pacific command center, which in turn gave the orders to the Pacific Fleet to carry out the landing operation in Japan.

It only took three minutes for President Trump's order to reach the Pacific Fleet. This would have been impossible without prior preparation.

Captain Donovan, who had received attack orders directly from Admiral Rubin Scott, immediately gave orders to the commanders of the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers.

At this, the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers that had been sailing towards the northwest started to separate slowly, moving into a diamond formation.

10 minutes later, when the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers had gotten into formation, Captain Donovan gave direct orders to the tactical control officer. "Report the current situation!"

"Reporting current situation. Enemy warship! Azimuth 2-9-5, distance 210K! Staying at the current location! Within the range of all anti-warship missiles and railguns."

After the short briefing on the current situation from the tactical control officer, Captain Donovan glanced at the watch on his wrist and thought for a moment.

He was deciding if they should launch an all-out attack at the distance they were currently at or if they should attack when they were a bit closer.

Captain Donovan concluded that it wasn't worth using the expensive anti-warship missiles against the 2nd Fleet of the Korean Navy, with only one Aegis Destroyer, and decided to destroy the 2nd Fleet with just the cost-effective railguns.

Thus, he decided to launch a surprise attack after getting closer to the 2nd Fleet and ordered the captains of the warships to sail at maximum speed. The eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers sped up to the maximum speed, which was 30 knots. The weather was in their favor—the waves were low and there was no wind.

Only the moon and the stars glimmered on the dark early morning horizon. On the sea, the eight warships sailed, cutting through the water, creating seafoam, which quickly disappeared as the waves carried them away.

"All warships, magnetic fields at max."

Built from the 7th warship, the Zumwalt-class Destroyers had cutting-edge radar jammers—a magnetic field pulse system.

With this system, a magnetic field pulse is formed over the entire Zumwalt-class Destroyer, preventing the enemy's radar detection. In this case, they wouldn't be seen on the fire control radar, which meant that they were able to defend well against radar-based weapons unless they were manually aimed and fired.

The Zumwalt-class Destroyers, with their extraordinary appearance, formed magnetic field pulse systems around themselves and sailed rapidly, while preparing one of the powerful weapons it carried, the railgun.

The fairing on the front deck of the warships was drawn back on each side, revealing enormous turrets, slowly rising upward. The front of the turret then opened on each side, revealing a railgun barrel. It was not very long, but it was unusually shaped. It was a scene similar to something seen in a science fiction movie.

In addition, among the Zumwalt-class Destroyers, the warships Rayborn (DDG-1012) and Paul Hamilton (DDG-1014) were built from Flight II blueprints. They had, unlike the other Destroyers, two railguns on their decks.

Also, the previous railguns had an output of 128MJ. Starting from Flight II, the output was now 256MJ—an almost twofold increase. While the range was increased, the maximum speed of the metal bullets was increased to Mach 10 as well. They were the same Zumwalt-class, but the new Destroyers were incomparable to the early form of the Zumwalt-class Destroyers that were created three years ago.

* * *

January 23rd, 2024, 05:10

At sea (the battle command room of the Republic of Korea's Taejong the Great [DDG-1014]), 100 kilometers from the east end of Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

While the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers of the U.S. Navy sailed smoothly, Admiral Kim Lee-won, with his arms crossed and sitting on his chair, was watching their movements on the tactical screen as if he was Buddha.

"Admiral, will you be commanding the fleet to be on standby?" Operations officer Hong Seung-tae asked repeatedly out of worry. Admiral Kim Lee-won hadn't given any orders even though the U.S. Navy's Destroyers had gotten into battle formation.

"Operations officer! There's no need to be impatient! If I'm right, they won't attack right away."

It wasn't clear where he was getting his confidence, but it seemed like Admiral Kim Lee-won had already figured out the intentions of the U.S. Navy's Destroyers.

"Admiral! Numerous confirmation requests are coming in from squadron leaders. I feel that it'll be better to prepare ahead of time, as well."

"Hahaha, okay. Okay! Order the fleet to get ready for battle. Tell the ships that are in TCS mode to stay in the current position until a separate order is given to them."

"Yes, sir."

Admiral Kim Lee-won ordered the fleet to get ready for battle following the persistent request of the operations officer. He started humming, seemingly happy. At this, the operators and staff of the battle command room were puzzled.

His relaxed attitude, even when there was an upcoming fight with the most powerful navy in the world—the U.S. Navy—in a life or death situation, was indeed something that would certainly warrant such a reaction.

Soon after, the orders from the operations officer to get ready for battle was broadcasted to the combined fleet. However, not much movement was seen from ships of the fleet as they were already getting ready for battle.

Needless to say, the captain of Taejong the Great (DDG-1014) had already ordered the ship to get ready for battle, as well. Only a few members of the crew moved, while most of the crew stayed where they were, as they were ready for battle and were on standby. Admiral Kim Lee-won had been showing such a relaxed attitude because he knew that all the ships would already be getting ready for battle.

"Operations officer!"

"Yes, Admiral!"

"When do you think those b*stards will be attacking?"

"Well, seeing that they've gone past the expected attack time, I'm thinking they might attack soon."

"No, I believe it'll be at least 20 minutes before they start attacking."

"You're joking. It's already passed 10 minutes since their expected attack time."

"You'll know when you see it."

Admiral Kim Lee-won, with his unknown confidence, winked and closed his eyes. At this, Officer Hong Seung-tae tilted his head with a puzzled look on his face.

* * *

January 23rd, 2024, 05:30

At sea (bridge of the Paul Hamilton [DDG-1014] warship), 358 kilometers from the east end of Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

They were now about 200 kilometers away from the 2nd Fleet of the Korean Navy and it was approaching 30 minutes past the expected attack time.

"Captain! I think you should order an attack now. We've just received orders from the fleet command staff to attack since President Trump has announced the acceptance of Japan's requests regarding the request for a declaration of autonomy."

"Damn! Can't they wait just a little longer?"

Captain Landen Donovan, after checking the time, had wanted to continue sailing fast for a further 20 minutes to get closer to the 2nd Fleet, but he had to follow the orders given to him by the fleet command staff. If he acted late and got his command rights taken away, all of this would have been for nothing.

"Operations officer! Give my orders to all the ships. The first wave of attack will only be with railguns, and the target will be designated by this ship. After the data link has connected, I will be expecting a report from each ship when they're ready. After that, I will order the exact attack time!" Captain Landen Donovan gave a clear and simple order. He was soon expecting to be promoted to the Group Leader of the 1st Carrier Strike Group.

"Yes, sir. I will convey your orders to them."

The operations officer immediately relayed Captain Donovan's orders to all the ships. Meanwhile, Captain Donovan picked up his receiver and called the combat information center. "Combat information center."

"Yes, this is the tactical control officer of the combat information center."

"Set the enemy ships as targets, and distribute targets to each ship on our side!"

"Yes, sir."

Soon after, a report came in from the tactical control officer. "Currently, we have finished distributing targets to each ship, and have gotten reports from each ship that they have connected to the data link."

"Roger."

Captain Donovan gave a short answer, looked at the clock on the wall, and gave another order. "Current time is 05:38. At 05:40, exactly two minutes from now, all ships launch attacks!"

"Yes, sir. I will relay your order."

After the order had been given, each of the eight Zumwalt-class Destroyers turned their 512J-class railgun turrets toward the targets they were given.

Two minutes later, metal bullets were fired with shelling sounds that could hardly be heard.

The metal bullets, with their speed of Mach 10, were special compound bullets with such amazing speed that they could hit targets that were around 200 kilometers away in just 79 seconds.

The size of these bullets was tiny in comparison to the anti-warship missiles, so unless there were intercepting systems that could stop these tiny bullets, this attack was expected to be impossible to intercept. Because of this, Captain Donovan had planned to destroy the 2nd Fleet's warships completely with just this attack.

"44 seconds until impact!" Reports came in from the combat information center in real-time.

Usually, in battles, the captain would be down at the combat information center (CIC), watching the battle situation. However, the current battle was seen to be a one-sided slaughter, so the captain hadn't even thought of heading down there. Instead, he stared at the tactical symbols that represented the bullets that were flying toward the enemy ships, which were provided by the data link from the CIC.

The blue dots, which represented the bullets that were flying in a downward arc after reaching maximum altitude, began disappearing from the screen one by one.

"Wh-What's going on?" At the sudden occurrence, Captain Donovan picked his receiver up and forcefully asked the combat information center.

"Th-they seem to have been intercepted."

"Tactical control officer! Don't joke with me! What do you mean, they've been intercepted?"

While he was furiously talking with the tactical control officer, the dozens of blue dots suddenly disappeared from the screen without a trace.

"Is it true? An interception? D-damn! Launch a second wave of attack right away. Have each ship shoot at its designated target until the target is hit," shouted Captain Donovan frustratedly into the headset of the communications operator that he had grabbed when he stomped toward the communication console.

At that moment, an unbelievable report came in from the CIC.

20 new warships had appeared and were surrounding the 12 warships of the 2nd Fleet.

This information was from the Atlas satellite, which had been scouting the area from above. Currently, in the sky above the seas east of Japan, four Atlas reconnaissance satellites were scouting the seas so closely that they could even spot a flea within a 500-kilometer radius. If they didn't have the Atlas reconnaissance satellites, they probably couldn't have realized the presence of the ships that were in TCS (Transparent Camouflage System) mode so quickly.

Captain Donovan had already been surprised, but he was even more astonished due to the information of the report that had just followed the previous one.

Three years ago, four Zumwalt-class Destroyers were devastated at sea by just one of the Chungmugong Lee Sun-shin-class destroyers, the most powerful cruiser of the Republic of Korea. The contents of the report that followed the previous one stated that two of these Chungmugong Lee Sun-shin-class destroyers were confirmed to be among the new ships that had appeared, according to the DB they had used to analyze these ships.

The results of the analysis of the defeat, at the time, were confirmed to be because of the clumsy operations of the Japanese Navy. However, the fact that four of the most powerful Destroyers of the U.S. Navy, which had taken 3 billion to build, was defeated by just one ship, was a humiliating memory that the U.S. Navy would remember for a long time to come.

Captain Donovan's brain froze as if he was hit with a hammer. The blue dots shown on the tactical symbols screen continued to disappear.

"This is an order from the Pacific Fleet's command staff. It's an order to immediately flee from this area and retreat."

The tactical control officer shouted urgently but his shouts didn't reach Captain Donovan's ears. However, Captain Donovan couldn't contain astonishment at the additional report.