Tyranny of Steel

Hans was resting in his bunk after a long day's work. Over the past week, he had been an instrumental part of the war effort against Japan. By now, he had shot down a total of 50 Japanese aircraft and was considered Germany's premier fighter ace.

Following his initial victory, the crew of the SMS Osterreich had painted Hans' plane crimson, with the fore end of the plane being painted in a white and black checkered pattern, along with a matching spiral propellor.

Obviously, the pattern was not designed to blend in with the landscape which Hans flew over, and instead was a statement about his identity as the greatest fighter pilot in the world. The fighting had been intense for the first week, as the Japanese forces came from the Philippines in larger numbers to contest the German invasion of Borneo.

Hans had already lost five members of his squadron to the Japanese fighters, shot down over the Borneo, and never recovered. It was uncertain whether they were KIA or MIA, but their loss had a noticeable effect on the carrier, whose pilot's quarters were down by five men.

Haywire had miraculously survived, despite his reckless piloting, and continued to fly as Hans' wingman. He had scored quite a few kills himself, enough to become an ace in his own right, but compared to Hans, his glory fell short.

However, before the 6th Carrier Strike Group could fully perform their duties, they were ordered to pack up and embark towards the midway islands in an attempt to regroup with the 8th and 10th carrier strike groups.

The reason for this was obvious: a large battle group of Japanese warships which were roughly twice the number of the 6th CSG had been spotted in hot pursuit of the German fleet. However, Hans still felt a bit dissatisfied over the fact that he and his comrades were now essentially running with their tails between his legs.

As much as the boy wanted to rest, he was more concerned about getting out there and doing his job. Thus, he waited patiently as the night passed by, slipping in and out of sleep, before looking over at his alarm clock to check the time.

For days, Hans endured such an existence as the war continued in Borneo, and Korea, with more casualties piling up by the day. He felt it was his sworn duty to assist the men on the ground by eliminating the air forces of the enemy. Yet now that they were so far out at sea, there was truly nothing that he could do.

After nearly two weeks at sea, the Sixth Carrier Strike group found itself outside the Marshall Islands, which were still a bit further away from their ultimate destination. However, the 8th CSG located which was normally stationed in Australia, along with the 10th CSH which was usually housed in Hawaii, were not far away, and thus, despite their orders to continue on to Midway, Admiral Nolthe Schriber decided to engage the enemy.

The siren interrupted Hans's half-asleep state shortly before the crack of dawn. With this, the entire crew of the carrier rushed into uniform and to their positions in preparation for the upcoming battle. After getting dressed in his pilot's uniform, Hans rushed to the meeting room, where his Wing Commander had gathered to give a speech to the pilots who would be taking the most risk on this day.

"Alright men, any moment now, a battle will take place between our fleet and the Japanese Armada. Luckily for all of us, we have thirty-seven of the best damn pilots this world has to offer. Lieutenant Hans, I want you to lead our fighters to engage the enemy floatplanes. As for the Stukas, I will take command. Remember, you are to get within an acceptable distance and launch your torpedos at the enemy's ships. Those same vessels will have extensive Anti-Aircraft capabilities, so don't get yourselves killed!"

With that short speech given, that pilots saluted their wing commander before embarking towards the deck, where they hopped into their planes and begun to take off. Immediately after hitting the air, Hans saw the enemy fleet in the distance. Out of the roughly twenty-five Japanese warships that were visible above the surface, roughly eight of them were battleships, while the rest were a mixture of cruisers and destroyers.

Still, that an enormous amount of firepower when compared with the German Carrier strike group, which deployed its sole battleship, and two cruisers in front of the carrier to protect it against the enemy's large bore guns.

Still, if the enemy thought their battleships would win this engagement, then they were sorely mistaken. In the distance, Hans could see the 8th and 10th carrier strike groups flanking the Japanese Armada. In total, there would be well over a hundred German planes in the air, most of which were torpedo bombers. Thus, Hans had a good feeling about the battle that was about to take place.

Thunderous echoes roared in the air as the German and Japanese warships began to engage one another on the seas. While the Japanese anti-aircraft weapons fired into the skies, trying their best to nail the 37 planes that had just entered the air space after being launched by the SMS Osterreich.

One of these flak guns narrowly missed Hans's wing, as he tilted his plane out of the blast radius of the 20mm shell. Hans could not worry about the ships below, as his job was to deal with the Japanese floatplanes.

The Japanese floatplanes which were launched from the battleships were loosely modelled after the Nakajima A6M2-N from Berengar's past life. There was however, certain extensive modifications in place to make the aircraft primarily constructed from wood. Steel was used in place of aluminum where necessary, however, this ultimately made the aircraft heavier and slower than it otherwise would have been.

There were perhaps at most sixteen of these fighters, which were roughly the same number, give or take a few, as the German fighters that had launched from the SMS Osterreich. As for the rest of the warplanes attached to the other CSGs, they had yet to launch from their respective carriers.

Knowing that it was now do or die, Hans began to take altitude, making sure he could get an advantage over the enemy fighters, which were not designed to go nearly as high as the German Ta-152. However, he could guess that the sight of the legendary crimson warplane was enough to install a sense of dread into the other pilots.

He was right to assume this, as the moment the Japanese pilots witnessed his noticeable plane, they all began to chase after him, not a single one paying attention to the other German pilots. Looping through the air, Hans used his superior speed and altitude to get behind the envy floatplanes, where he opened fire on his first target.

The 30mm auto cannons on board his plane mercilessly tore the tail off the Japanese float plane, sending it spiraling down into the ocean where it crashed on the deep blue surface. While he was engaging another plane, the rest of the German pilots began to pick their own targets and dogfight it out in the air.

Since the two sides were roughly equal in number, Hans decided to give a bit of encouragement to his comrades as he spoke over the radio towards them.

"If any of you fuckers manage to get shot down without killing a single enemy, I will piss on your graves!"

Hans knew that the other pilots were laughing in their cockpits, even if they did not voice it over the radio. He then swept down and shot another Japanese floatplane which was about to unleash its twin 20mm auto cannons onto Haywire's backside. Who was in his own reckless way chasing after another Japanese plane in front of him?

Naturally, Hans felt the need to scold his fellow pilot, which he was quick to do so after breaking off from the man's tail and pursuing another fighter.

"What did I just fucking say?"

Hans could hear haywire's voice on the radio, apologizing for not watching his six properly.

"Sory boss, you know how I get with my tunnel vision!"

However, Hans did not want to hear it, instead from the corner of his eye saw Haywire shoot out one of his target's engines, who was rapidly spiraling down towards the ocean's surface. However, he noticed something peculiar. The Japanese pilot had not ejected, and was instead aiming his plane towards the surface of the SMS Osterreich.

This caused Hans to curse out loud as he dived as fast as he could to intercept the enemy plane before it could cause serious damage to the carrier.

"Fuck!"

Hans began to count down the seconds until the enemy plane collided with the carrier's deck as he dived from the opposite direction. Luckily for him, his plane was substantially faster, and thus he was not only able to close the distance, but surpass the other pilot, where he nearly hit the ocean's surface before pulling on his flight stick, and shooting up towards the underbelly of the Japanese floatplane.

Just as the two aircraft were about to collide in mid-air, Hans veered to the side and fired his auto cannons. In doing so, he had blasted off the floatplane's wing, causing its trajectory to veer off course. Ultimately missing the SMS Osterreich and crashing into the water's surface where the plane and its pilot disintegrated upon impact.

Seeing how he had just saved a German Carrier from sinking, Hans expected a Knight's cross for such a feat, and he would make sure that Haywire planted the idea into the wing commander's brain.

Thus, while Hans and his fellow fighter pilots had utterly annihilated the Japanese floatplanes, the two fleets were engaged in a frightening display of firepower.