Chapter 209 : U1 Submarine
Chapter 209: U1 Submarine
【Arrived above the designated location, descending altitude.】
In the pitch-black night sky at an altitude of 1000 meters, a 25-meter-class multifunctional airship, with its anti-magic detection array activated, began to slowly descend. The underside of the airship was covered with high-power infrared illumination matrices.
As ballast water was continuously injected, the airship silently descended to a height of 300 meters above the ground and came to a stop, bringing the Church’s riverside military camp below into full view.
A Church soldier at the bridgehead was scanning the dark water surface, completely unaware that beneath the wooden bridge he stood on, a human head had quietly emerged from the water, with both hands slightly raised, staring at him intently.
“Bang!” A faint gunshot rang out.
The soldier, who had just turned to leave, was struck in the center of his forehead by a bullet that seemed to appear out of nowhere. His body stiffened, and he fell backward along the force, only to be caught by the pair of hands on the water’s surface.
After gently placing the body beneath the bridge, the man climbed onto the wooden bridge, removed a plastic long case from his back, placed it on the ground, and opened it. He took out a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a waterproof bag and began rapidly assembling its components.
A small assault boat carrying two people glided to the side of the wooden bridge amid the faint hum of its engine. The three, cloaked in anti-detection robes, formed a squad and steadily advanced.
The sniper fired two consecutive shots, blowing out the camp’s searchlights and immediately causing commotion among the soldiers inside.
With the airship’s active infrared illumination, the bolt-action rifle equipped with an infrared night-vision scope could clearly observe several soldiers inside the camp inspecting the lighting equipment.
‘Bang bang bang...’
Intense gunfire and cries for help echoed nearby. Under the elevated, top-down precision fire from snipers positioned at the front and rear, a squad of ten Church soldiers was effortlessly wiped out without any chance to resist.
Seeing that the area had been cleared, the sniper picked up the communicator and said, “Area secure. Awaiting target rendezvous and extraction.”
‘Received. Target is still 20 kilometers away from your position.’
“Understood!”
This was already the third outpost they had cleared along the way. These outposts functioned similarly to maritime patrol stations, mainly used to prevent merchant ships from encountering small pirate raiding vessels.
Given the width of the Olstead River, it was difficult for large ships to enter, so the Church had not paid much attention to the riverside positions.
The extraction team did not have to wait long. John and his two companions arrived at the rendezvous point in a creaking small vehicle. Patting the vehicle that had carried them all the way, John took the crystal handed over by his teammate and set up a simple fire-element magic array to cremate the vehicle.
The melting point of aluminum alloy was only 660°C, and it would soon be burned into ashes.
Amid the flames, the three boarded the speedboat, started the engine, and sped across the water. Meanwhile, the unit that had received them boarded the descending airship and headed toward the Alliance’s secret base established on the Main Continent.
They only had time to exchange brief greetings before parting ways.
Through the use of airships, Mitia had established an airship network across the Main Continent. With the strong endurance of airships serving as aerial supply platforms, they regularly delivered necessary military supplies to various squad networks.
Small airships were usually attached to larger airships and were deployed when missions were assigned.
Under normal circumstances, these third-level special operations soldiers were scattered across the Main Continent living as ordinary people, only being activated when missions required them.
As John and his companions boarded the assault boat, the second phase of the mission was successfully completed, and the signal to initiate the final phase was transmitted.
About 100 kilometers away from Olstead Port, near a bend in the river channel, large bubbles began to surface. Beneath the water, a mast slowly rose, and a pitch-black conning tower emerged above the surface.
U-class submarine, codename U-02
Crew: 25
Length: 45 meters, Draft: 3.8 meters
Surface displacement: 280 tons
Submerged displacement: 340 tons
2 × 500-horsepower magitech engines, dual-shaft propulsion
Surface speed: 15 knots
Submerged speed: 6.9 knots
Surface endurance: 10 knots, 1000 nautical miles
Submerged endurance: 5 knots, 650 nautical miles
Maximum diving depth: 150 meters
If there were still debates about whether magitech engines were suitable for other types of weaponry, then for submarines, the improvement they brought was undeniably enormous.
With no pollution and low energy consumption, they greatly enhanced operational range. Although they still required oxygen to function, the space saved from reduced fuel storage was more than sufficient to store oxygen.
Although the Olstead River grew narrower, due to its proximity to the sea, the depth before entering the narrow channel remained around 250–300 meters, just enough to accommodate the submergence of U-class submarines.
As the assault boat advanced into radio communication range, John and his team soon spotted the oddly shaped vessel floating on the water.
Once they climbed onto the deck, the submarine captain shook John’s hand and smiled. “Congratulations on completing the mission, Lieutenant Colonel John.”
John’s face was filled with relief and joy.
“Alright, head down first. This isn’t the place to talk.”
He guided them toward a ladder inside a pipe shaft leading into the submarine. Since the development of 533mm heavy torpedoes had not yet made significant progress, the submarine currently lacked suitable underwater self-defense weapons, leaving the interior relatively spacious.
At present, the Alliance still positioned submarines primarily for special operations, such as underwater infiltration. A dedicated submarine force had not yet been formally established, though it was already in planning.
After all, water-pattern detection technology was still in its early stages, and the Alliance had only mapped a limited number of underwater regions. It had to rely on cross-referencing with forward terrain-matching radar.
Fortunately, with the application of magic shields, even occasional collisions with debris could be corrected, avoiding the kind of catastrophic outcomes seen in the previous world.
As the top hatch closed and the engines started, the ballast tanks at the top of the submarine began expelling water and air.
【Air expulsion complete. Conning tower hatch closed. Airlock chamber sealing initiated.】
【Sealing complete. Pressurization and sealing complete. Captain, calibration finished.】
“Received. Open ventilation valve.”
【Ventilation valve opened. Bottom ballast tanks beginning water intake. Periscope shows no lateral tilt. Initiating descent at 3°, depth 100 meters.】
【Received. Beginning descent, 1°... 2°...】
With continuous reports from the crew, the submarine began moving forward and descending beneath the water, leaving behind trails of bubbles on the surface that gradually dissipated.
【Ventilation valve closed.】
“Received. Air valve closed. Establish full-vessel radio communication. Crystal powder injection pipeline functioning normally.”
The submarine silently passed beneath Olstead Port, perfectly evading all patrols.
The reason for going to such lengths—even having special forces use bolt-action rifles and modified sniper rifles firing standard 7.92mm rounds—was to extract John while minimizing the Alliance’s presence as much as possible.
To eliminate the Church’s suspicion toward the Alliance, the Alliance even held nearly a hundred million in Church-issued paper currency on its books—destined to become worthless in the future.
From a normal perspective, such massive losses would never be something a mastermind behind the scenes would willingly incur.
Of course, the losses were only superficial. Behind the scenes, over the years, the Alliance had seized vast amounts of silver, reaping astronomical profits.
Even the share that John received alone was enough for his family to spend for dozens of generations without exhausting it.