Prohibition of Interference. Book 6. Samurai Code. Макс Глебов
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Taking cover in a shallow trench, Vandergrift clenched his fists to the point of pain. In his imagination, he could clearly see that a few kilometers from the airfield Japanese soldiers, encouraged by the actions of their fleet, were preparing for a night attack. An attack that he would have nothing to repel with.
“Irs, they're not fugitives,” Letra's voice sounded worried and… indignant. “In the cargo compartment they had not medical capsules, but minidrons for in-system reconnaissance. Lieutenant, forty hours ago they hacked into our satellite!”
“Did the network defense hold? And why are you only telling me this now?”
“It was a damaged satellite that had no direct access to the network, but it still had a lot of information in its storage devices. The good news is that all this information belongs to the period before the attack on the Moonbase, which means that the rebels know nothing about your actions on the planet. After being damaged by rocket shrapnel, the satellite went into a passive mode, waiting for the arrival of a repair drone, which, as you understand, never arrived. We don't have a military network, as you remember. The security protocols are completely different. The machine was not online and was monitored sporadically. Another test revealed the fact of a third-party connection. You know the rest.”
“Why aren't they attacking?”
“They fear a stab in the back from our base. Put yourself in their shoes. The wreckage of the cruiser that tried to destroy the base in a frontal attack is dangling in lunar orbit, and all they have appears to be a destroyer, and it's not the fact that it is fully combat-ready.”
“I like this less and less by the minute. Apart from assumptions, we have nothing.”
“It's not all bad news, Lieutenant. Satellites have detected activity in orbit. Eight hours ago, someone was using short-range communications systems around the Solomon Islands, making a transmission over a narrow radio beam, just as I do, simulating local radio communications.
It was not possible to intercept the message, but it is clear what happened. Immediately after that, Japanese Admiral Mikawa abruptly changed his plans and turned his squadron, which was already leaving the combat area, in the opposite direction. As a result, the tactical defeat of the Allied fleet turned into a real disaster. They lost all their transport ships off the coast of Guadalcanal. The Marines who managed to disembark suffered heavy casualties, having been knocked out of the unfinished airfield at Cape Lunga by the Japanese and were now driven into the rainforest with no heavy weapons and almost no ammunition. Irs, there can be no other option here than for the rebels to intervene in the war on Japan's side. So far their actions are limited to the transmission of information, but you know as well as I do that it can be a very effective weapon.”
“How many drones do they have? Can they build a network of satellites like ours over the planet?”
“I don't think so. The destroyer is a warship, and reconnaissance is only an auxiliary function for it, and the drones themselves are not designed for such tasks, so we were able to detect the fact of the transmission from orbit, even though we weren't able to intercept or jam it.”
“And now what? That way, the Japanese can find out about all my actions at any time.”
“Lieutenant, do you really think the rebels will limit themselves to leaking information to the Japanese?” There was a sound of incomprehension in Letra's voice. “I have to disappoint you. A few minutes ago a similar transmission from orbit was noted in the vicinity of Berlin. Forget everything that came before. I'm afraid the game you started a year ago has gone to an absolutely other level.”
Chapter 3
After the new force intervened in the course of events, the situation on the fronts became completely unpredictable. Neither I nor Letra could foresee where and how the rebels would influence the decisions and actions of the enemy. Nevertheless, my plan was approved by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and I had no opportunity to deviate from it – no one would have understood me. And since that was the case, I should have started to act, especially since the pilots and equipment had already arrived from the Union, and now Moscow and Washington were waiting with great interest for me to begin active operations against the Japanese.
The Chinese met us with great enthusiasm. Their generals still tried somehow to contain their emotions, but the middle-ranking officers made no secret of their enthusiasm for the new Soviet equipment; they believed that now that the Russian pilots had returned to their country, everything would finally change, and their army will cease to be a side that is perpetually defensive and constantly defeated.
The Chinese provided us with an airfield to base the Kudryavtsev’s regiment near the city of Chongqing, which became the temporary capital of China after the Japanese occupation of Nanjing. Chiang Kai-shek refused to place us closer to the front line. Apparently, he had no confidence in the resilience of his soldiers, which was understandable. We arrived in his country in the midst of another Japanese offensive. The enemy was advancing through Jiangxi Province toward the city of Changsha. The Chinese divisions were retreating, losing badly to the Japanese in technical equipment, mobility, and the organization of troop control.
Part of the coast of the South China Sea and East China Sea was still under the control of Chiang Kai-shek's army, but it was sandwiched between Indochina, occupied by the Japanese, to the south and Shanghai, lost back in 1937, to the north. In addition, it was torn in two by Hong Kong, which had been invaded by Japan.
The Imperial Army sought to establish a land link between the territories under its control, at the same time completely cutting off the Chinese forces from the sea, and Chiang Kai-shek naturally tried to prevent such a development by all possible means. Naturally, he immediately decided to use me to stop the enemy's advance with air strikes.
In principle, I was not at all against helping the Chinese generalissimo with his problems, but only as a side task. That was not why I came to China. I needed to organize a painful demoralizing blow to the Japanese forces that would make a proper impression on Roosevelt and Stalin, and I think I knew exactly where I was going to do it.
Fighting in the Pacific was growing in scope, and the Imperial Navy had to constantly move its ships from one region to another in order to respond to the Allies, who sought to seize the initiative. Now, as a major battle unfolded in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Japanese urgently redeployed the aircraft carrier group that had taken part in the Aleutian Islands operation in July.
The heavy aircraft carrier Zuikaku, which had just been repaired at the metropolitan docks, left the Kure District shipyards and put to sea to join the rest of her battalion. On the way, the aircraft carrier made a stop in Okinawa to replenish the air group and refuel. At my direction, Letra carefully monitored the movements of all the big ships of the Imperial Navy, carefully choosing the moment when one of them would be in a vulnerable position and at the same time be in the range of my planes, that was, within a thousand kilometers from the coast of the South China Sea.
Of course, I'd like to catch some iconic battleship like the Yamato at the crossing. The destruction of the world's largest battleship would undoubtedly have impressed the leaders of the USSR and the United States, but the Imperial Navy's line forces were based on Truk Island, more than three thousand kilometers southeast of our airfield, so it could only be dreamed of. Nevertheless, Zuikaku was not a bad target either. After the battle in the Coral Sea and off Midway Atoll, it became clear to all sensible admirals of the world, that it was now the aircraft carriers that played the major role in the ocean.
“The target is leaving port,” Letra reported succinctly.
Well, it's about