Reincarnated as an Imperial Prince
chapter-336-1-30041322

Two hours had passed since Admiral George permitted the Baltic Fleet of the Ruthenian Imperial Navy to enter the Britannian Empire's territorial waters. His crews were busy fixing the damage incurred by the rogue battleship, HMS Nelson, who fired two salvos at the aircraft carrier.

From there, Admiral George ordered the captain of each ship to reevaluate their crews to find who is the enemy, and who is not. Since then, suspicion lingered in the minds of the crews and the captains. Fearing that at any moment, they would act in a way that will harm the ship and their fellow servicemen.

Fortunately, nothing happened but they are keeping their eyes peeled.

"Admiral! We have an incoming transmission from the Admiralty," the telegraph operator informed George, who was sitting in the captain's seat.

"What is it?" George asked.

"The Admiralty has strictly ordered that only you should read the message," the telegraph operator replied as he extended out his arms, giving the letter to him.

George's eyes narrowed into slits, sensing trepidation from the letter. He grabbed the letter out of the telegraph operator's hand and perused the contents.

His expression sank after glancing at the written contents of the letter. "Are they serious?"

"What is it, Admiral?" His second-in-command noticed the pale expression on George.

He exhaled deeply before responding, "The Britannia Empire declared war on the Ruthenia Empire under the ground of attacking London which resulted in the death of our Queen. They also found out that we let the Baltic Fleet of the Ruthenian Empire enter Britannian waters and wanted us to chase them off."

"That is really serious," his second-in-command rubbed his chin. "So what are you going to do, Admiral? This is a direct order from the Admiralty, should we go after them?"

"It's an order from the Admiralty, the highest authority in the Royal Navy. We have to fulfill it. Get me the bearing and the distance of the Baltic Fleet!" George commanded.

"Aye aye, captain!" his second-in-command acknowledged the order and spurred into action to carry out his duty.

One minute later, his second-in-command came back. "Admiral, according to our estimates, they are 55 nautical miles southeast of our position."

"Launch all available aircraft and intercept the Ruthenian Baltic Fleet fast. All ships change course to one-three-five, full speed ahead. We have let our enemy enter our territory, putting the life of our people whom we are supposed to protect at risk. I don't want any mistakes. Admiral Samuel may have looked friendly but he is now our enemy."

On the flight deck of the HMS Illustrious, sixteen aircraft were launched. Consisting of six Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers, five Blackburn Skua Dive Bombers, and five Fairey Fulmar fighter aircraft.

The aircraft was a survivor from HMS Nelson's salvo that struck the hangar deck, resulting in the loss of 25 aircraft.

The aircraft soared into the sky and cruised at the speed of 200 kilometers toward the location of the Ruthenian Baltic Fleet.

***

One hour later, the Ruthenian Baltic Fleet is two hours out to the English Channel. Admiral Samuel was already informed of the Britannian declaration of war to the Ruthenia Empire and that he was preparing for possible engagement with the Royal Navy at the moment's notice.

The radar operator located in the electronics room of the HIRMS Belorussiya saw a blip on his monitor screen.

"Sir, I'm detecting sixteen blips heading towards our position with a speed of 200 kilometers per hour," the radar operator swiveled behind, informing the chief who handles all electronics operations in the aircraft carrier.

"Where did they come from?" the chief asked.

"North north west," the radar operator answered.

"Shit...they came from the Britannian aircraft carrier," the chief quickly realized as he knew that in that direction, was the position of the Britannian Home Fleet.

"I'm informing the bridge," the chief pulled the telephone out of the cradle and contacted the bridge deck. "This is the electronics station, we are seeing sixteen bogeys heading towards our position with a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, twenty kilometers away from us."

The operator who received the call from the electronics station nodded after hearing it and turned his head to the right, where Admiral Samuel was standing.

"Admiral, we have located bogeys twenty kilometers north-northwest of our position."

"So they already made their move huh?" Admiral Samuel muttered under his breath, expecting that this time would come. "Notify all the fleets of this information, and intercept those aircraft with missiles immediately. We can't risk them exposing our position as we are rescuing His Majesty."

The destroyers escorting the fleet received the order from the aircraft carrier and quickly armed their radar-guided surface-to-air missile.

The missile operators waited for the bogeys to enter the range of the missile of about 10 kilometers.

They waited patiently until all of them were now in range of the missile. Without hesitation, they all pushed the button. A bright flash of light illuminated the night sky as all of the missiles was launched from their launching platforms. It flew at a blinding speed of Mach 1.6, a terrifying speed that would close the distance of 10 kilometers in a mere thirty-four seconds.

The fighter squadron of the HMS Illustrious noticed a bright orange light from the horizon.

"What is that?" one of the pilots asked.

"Who knows, but am I the only one who is noticing that it's heading towards us?" said another pilot.

"Shit! That's a Ruthenian weapon! Evade! Evade!" another pilot shouted, seemingly familiar with the light approaching them.

But before he could turn the yoke to the right, an arrow-shaped projectile, trailing smoke and fire, struck the front fuselage of the plane.

The pilots around were utterly shocked and horrified when the plane exploded in flames and hit the cold ocean below.

Seconds later, more arrow-shaped projectiles collided with the aircraft, instantly reducing their numbers from sixteen to five.

The five pilots who just witnessed something beyond their comprehension panicked and broke formation and routed. However, the co-pilot of the aircraft saw another incoming arrow-shaped projectile heading toward them at an extremely

alarming rate. And their fear of being shot down caused them to dive and evade it in every possible manner.

"Holy fucking shit! What in heaven's name is happening?!"

In an instant, the aircraft started exploding one after another, causing parts of their aircraft to fly in different directions.

Back in the bridge deck of the HIRMS Belorussiya, Admiral Samuel was tapping his foot to the ground, waiting for the reports.

"Admiral, all bogeys have been intercepted and destroyed," one of the crews in the bridge deck said.

"Good, now that it's out of the way. It's time for a counterattack. Launch the eight squadrons and sink the fleet that is chasing us," Admiral Samuel ordered.

As much as Samuel hated fighting the man he just met earlier, he knew that George would pose a threat once they retreated out of the Britannian waters. After all, they have to evacuate their emperor, Alexander Romanoff, from the battlefield and take him back to St. Petersburg where he'll command the military of the Ruthenian Empire.

The moment his orders were relayed, the pilots of the Wraith Fighter Aircraft raced down the hallways towards a certain room where they'll wear their flight suits. After that, they ran towards the flight deck of the aircraft carrier.

The Wraith Fighter Aircraft was being fueled and armed by the crews in the flight deck. They hopped into the aircraft and conducted quick pre-flight checks on the systems.

Once it's all checked out, the Wraith fighter aircraft began taking off from the flight deck one by one with a mission to sink the Britannia Home Fleet trailing them.