Inside the headquarters, Leonid gathered his crew in one of the many briefing rooms of the headquarters.

Leonid is one of the pilots of the new patrol aircraft of the Imperial Ruthenian Navy, the GiM P-Orion. A copy of the P-3 Orion.

Alexander, being the owner of IDS, decided to save time thinking of names for each vehicle copy by erasing some letters and numbers from the full name or just creating anagrams of the names.

What took him and the IDS directors hours to finalize, took only minutes with an eraser on the back of an intern’s pencil.

Seeing that his crews had arrived, Leonid began the briefing.

“So, we’ve been just tasked by the Central Command to neutralize any Yamato submarines sailing off the coast of Sakhalin. We will egress at 0940 HRS. At 1440 HRS, we will arrive at the Sakhalin airspace, where we’ll meet up with the aircraft tanker Gagana to refuel,”

Aerial Refuel plane “Gagana”, a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker copy. Its name comes from the mythical bird of the same name that has an iron beak and copper claws. It is said to work miracles and, if she is asked correctly, can help a person. This bird is also the only one capable of giving milk and is said to be the mother of all birds in the world.

The plane’s functions sure reflect its name.

Many personnel calls it, jokingly, “The Flying Milk Bottle” or “The Flying Milkcow” and even the cheekier “The Flying Teats”.

As Leonid was briefing them on their mission, the crews were jotting down notes on their pocketbooks to make sure that they wouldn’t miss out on anything.

Leonid started drawing circles on the map of the Sea of Okhotsk.

“This is the area we are surveying for enemy submarines. The moment our sonars detected them, depending on the situation, we will deploy depth charges or torpedoes. Now, one important thing. The weather is not going to be nice later, so expect our ride to be bumpy. Under normal circumstances, we would’ve been grounded. But due to the nature of the mission, we will have to continue despite bad weather,”

“There will be a storm coming?” One of the crew raised his hand as he asks.

“Our L-band, phased-array radar facility in Heilongjiang detected thunderclouds over the Sea of Yamato, which will move into the Sea of Okhost within four hours. That was reported thirty minutes ago, so in the next three and a half hours, expect some rain.”

The crew nodded their heads in understanding.

“Are there any questions?” Leonid asked to see if anyone has any more queries.

“How long will this mission take?” one of his crew raised his hand.

“Until the Grand Duchess arrives at Sakhalin. So, fourteen to fifteen hours, give or take,” Leonid answered. “Any more questions?”

No one else raised their hands. Leonid continued speaking. “Good. Get into your flight suits, we will meet at the plane. Huzzah!”.

“Huzzah!” The crew chanted in unison as they rose from their seats and quickly headed towards the equipment room.

Outside the headquarters. Leonid looked up and saw that the sky was dimming with the approaching dark clouds. A light drizzle was falling over the airbase.

“This is going to be hard,” Leonid muttered to himself as he walked over to the P-Orion. His crews are already present inside, pneumatic sonobuoy, active sonars, torpedoes, and depth charges,

Leonid headed to the cockpit and sat on the pilot seat. He gave a fist bump to his co-pilot.

“Let’s begin the pre-flight sequence,” Leonid said as he took out his checklist.

It took them ten minutes to check all the systems, including all the weapons and equipment that were in place. They were running behind schedule. Leonid checked again to make sure everything was in place.

“Looks like everything is fine,” Leonid activated his helmet to connect to his crews. “Everyone buckled up, we are leaving in two minutes,”

“Copy that.”

“10-4,”

Leonid taxied the P-Orion to the runway, then turned it right slowly, until the plane faced the runway forward.

“This is it,” Leonid breathed as he increased the throttle of the engine, causing them to move forward, their speed increasing by the seconds.

“Set flaps to 15 degrees,” Leonid said.

“Setting flaps to 15 degrees,” his co-pilot acknowledged as he moved the throttle that controlled the flaps.

Leonid began pulling elevator control over to him and the plane started soaring to the sky.

***Four hours later, in Sakhalin Airspace. Flashes of thunder rumbled through the skies outside, the winds starting to get fierce but maintainable.

The aircraft tanker, Gagana, was just above the P-Orion, who already started the mid-air refueling procedures by extending its flying boom into the probe of the P-Orion located above the plane.

It was an arduous process that required teamwork and communication. As soon as the nozzle of the flying boom was connected, it started feeding the P-Orion with fuel. It took fifteen minutes to complete all the procedures. And once it’s all done, the Gagana return back to base.

***

Two hours later. 15 kilometers east off the coast of the Sakhalin. Three Ro-33-class submarines of the Yamato Empire were sailing towards Sakhalin to conduct espionage.

They are all on the surface, cruising for about 12 knots. In one of the submarines, Rear Admiral Mutsuko Sato was standing on the conning tower, allowing himself to breathe the fresh sea breeze that he longed for hours ago.

“Sir, we are currently sailing in the territorial waters of the Ruthenia Empire. Shouldn’t we be submerged? What if a patrol aircraft spotted us?” his aide asked worryingly.

“Hmm, on this remote island? There’s just no way. Their military airbase is 2,000 kilometers away from the Sakhalin. Do you think there is a patrol aircraft capable of flying for four hours just to get here? Not to mention it has to scan the coast of the Sakhalin?”

“No sir. The Ruthenians will run out of fuel before they get here.”

“That’s right…” Mutsuko grumbled. For the past four years, the development of the Ruthenia Empire has been impressive. In terms of economy, it was the second largest, making them a threat to the Yamato Empire.

And during those four years, the Ruthenia Empire invested heavily in their military, which caused problems among the high-military officials of the Yamato Army. Especially after the commissioning of the new type of naval warships that were unlike anything the world has seen before.

Those warships with impressive specifications threatened the dominance of the Navy of the Yamato Empire in the region. Forcing them to take drastic measures such as reconnaissance and espionage.

It has been tough to get inside the Ruthenia Empire, especially when one is a Yamato citizen.

The border control is strict that any spies the Yamato sent were arrested the moment they stepped into their soil.

Thus, they took the safe route, submarines. They are harder to locate and kill by any surface ships due to their cannons not being able to depress lower to strike them. Also, the ocean can serve as one giant shield for the submarine.

Five minutes later. A faint thumping sound can be heard from above.

“What is that?” his aide asked warily.

“Give me the binoculars,” Mutsuko ordered.

“Aye!” His aide handed him the binoculars to which Mutsuko immediately peered through them.

The skies are dimmed due to the weather, making it hard to locate the source of the sound. Minutes later, he found a silhouette of an aircraft cruising in the sky.

“Impossible…at this distance?” Mutsuko gasped in disbelief. “Prepare to submerge. We can’t be seen here by the Ruthenian.”

The two entered the submarine’s interior, closing the steel hatch. Mutsuko ordered the two submarines to be quickly submerged to hide from the patrol aircraft. Though he wasn’t sure if it was a patrol aircraft, he can’t take the chance of being made.action

…

Twenty minutes later. In the P-Orion aircraft. The rain started pouring heavily, and the wind started to get fierce, making it hard to control the aircraft. Leonid can only see the torrential downpour, the flashes of thunder, and the darkness covering the entire sky above them.

“Are we in the area?” Leonid asked.

“Yes sir!”

“Then let’s start hunting. Deploy the sonobuoy!” Leonid ordered.

“Deploying sonobuoy,” the order was repeated.

Beneath the P-Orion, one of its trypophobia-inducing underbelly sonobuoy holes shot out a tube that parachuted down into the sea.

“Sonobuoys are deployed.”

“Deploy the active sonar!” Leonid commanded.

“Deploying active sonar.”

Upon submersion, the sonobuoy active sonar began pinging.

*Ping…Ping…Ping…

Meanwhile, under the sea.

“Sir! You need to hear this,” the operator inside the submarine hailed Mutsuko.“What is it?” Mutsuko asked as he grabbed the headphone. He heard a pinging sound. “Impossible…” a shiver ran down his spine and his eyes widened. “That’s a sonar!”

“What…since when?!” one of the crew said incredulously. “There’s no Ruthenian surface ships or submarines in the area..”

“It’s from the patrol aircraft,” Mutsuko corrected. “Perform an emergency dive now! Set the depth to 150 meters…”

The orders were relayed to another two submarines, and they dove deeper.

In the sky. The P-Orion was on its circling path.

“Three submarines detected!” the sonar operator reported to Leonid the moment he received feedback from his sonar monitor screen.

“What type of submarine is it?” Leonid asked.

“Uhm…according to its acoustic signature, it’s a Ro-33-class submarine of the Yamato Empire…”

“So, they are really here huh? Very well, Launch the torpedoes.”

“Launching torpedoes.”

Three Mark 50 torpedos were para dropped into the sea from the hardpoints of the P-Orion.

Splashing into the water, the torpedoes began seeking their prey with the help of their internal active acoustic homing system.

In the Yamato submarine.

“Torpedoes in the water-bearing…3-3-0.”

“They fired at us? What are the Ruthenians thinking?”

“There’s no way it would hit us in this depth…”

“Wait! The torpedo is closing in!”

“Are you sure?!”

“Yes.”

Mutsuko snatched the headphone to listen for himself. The torpedoes are headed towards them. “Impossible…how could they redirect the trajectory of the torpedo…” he shook his head, there are more pressing issues that he has to deal with right now. “Torpedo evasion now! Hard right rudder!”

The submarine began turning right, away from the torpedo path. However, it was futile as the Mark 50 torpedo also changed its bearing and drive straight towards the submarine’s stern.

…meters…400…meters…300…meters…200 meters…100 meters…0 meters.

Two columns of water rise from below the aircraft.

“Two explosions confirmed.”

“What happened to the third one?”

“Possibly a dud, sir.”

“Shit!” Leonid cursed. “Where’s the last submarine right now?”

“Last pinged at bearing 0-7-0, distance 880 meters.”

Leonid turned the plane to the specified bearing and trailed the path of the submarine. Once he got to 800 meters, he barked his order.

“Deploy the depth charges!”

“Deploying depth charges.”

Under the P-Orion, a bomb bay opened, dropping five canister depth charges to the sea.

A column of water rose from the sea again as the depth charges started detonating under the water.

The plane was banked to the right, allowing them to see the explosions.

“That’s the last depth charge explosion, sir.”

“I want a confirmation…what do you hear?” Leonid asked.

“I can hear the sound of the metal crushing from the water pressure…no acoustic signatures can be heard. It’s safe to say that they are sunk…”

“Okay, let’s move to the next area. There might be more of them infesting the waters of our Great Ruthenian Empire waters. Huzzah!”

“Huzzah!”

Beneath the cold seas, the wreckage of three Yamato submarines sank down into the seafloor with their dead crew.

Never to be seen again for decades until documentary crews with maritime archaeologists search for their remains to get closure for the surviving family members.