Springfield Listening Array
Springfield Air National Guard Base
Springfield, Oregon
18 Days Post Event
"Yes sir, we're still in contact with them right now, as well as the Japanese Coast Guard on Marcus Island. They seem to have figured out what's going on right now and are staying put. We told them we would try to send help, but there's no guarantee we can."
"Yeah, well I can guarantee you that not one person in the military or government wants the JSDF garrison, all their equipment, and the hundreds of Americans and Australians on Iwo Jima falling into the hands of the Japanese Empire." Hoffman said, running a hand through his hair as he let out an exasperated sigh. "And the rest of this…is a clusterfuck."
In addition to Iwo Jima, the inhabited islands of the Ogasawara subprefecture were now present in this world. A collection of small, but modern islands with a population around 3,000 people, with examples of modern technology and knowledge of history. All of that just six hundred miles south of the Japanese mainland.
"I think that's putting it lightly, sir. We already have many clamoring for war with the Japanese and this isn't going to make it any better. Especially when many in Japan also want war with the United States." She said.
"The perfect storm of events to start a war that we're unprepared for," Hoffman began, going down to the summary of the report on the bottom of the page, and reading the list of callsigns and ship names present. "Most of these damn ships should have been sunk! Good lord, this is going to be a damn mess." Harper merely nodded her head in response to her Flight Commander's frustration.
She and her unit had picked up transmissions from no fewer than three United States Navy ships and at least two Republic of Korea Navy ships operating in the Yellow Sea. They were operating very far from home and dangerously close to the shores of Japan, whose navy was already on high alert. But what unnerved her the most was the names of the ships in question, and the year they claimed to be from.
The ROKS Cheonan, a Pohang Class Corvette sunk by North Korea in 2010, was the first ship identified, which startled a number of them. The next was PKM 357, a Chamsuri Class Patrol Boat sunk during the 2002 Battle of Yeonpyeong. The three American ships identified themselves as the USS Curtis Wilbur, USS Shiloh, and USS Harpers Ferry. The exact three ships who helped in the search for the sunken Cheonan, of which two were sunk in the last major clash with the Chinese Navy.
All of the crews aboard the five ships were at a loss for what had happened, and initially refused to believe Harper's claims about being sent back in time. That was until a flight of Mitsubishi Zeroes flew too close to the small flotilla of ships, attacked them, and were swatted from the sky with trivial ease.
From that point onward, Harper and everyone else with radio contact told them to sail south and get out of the area as soon as possible. They would be running a dangerous gauntlet against the Japanese, but it was their only chance to avoid complete annihilation. Further south, three more ships, two Japanese, and one Korean, were identified.
They were JS Yūbari, JS Matsuyuki, and ROKS Seoul. Three destroyers, all with equally confused and dazed crewmen, who were also unaware of what happened until they too were attacked, and repulsed said attackers. The eight ships knew they were in hostile territory and began a desperate attempt to meet up, and break out of Japanese territory.
Near Hainan, what was assumed to be the Jiangdao Class Corvette Liupanshui, and Houjian Class Missile Boat Panyu, were sailing at flank speed towards the Paracel Islands, which were also broadcasting panicked messages that could be heard in Oregon.
Finally, between Iwo Jima and the rest of the islands of the Ogasawara subprefecture, were two JMSDF replenishment vessels, JDS Sagami and Hamana, two destroyers, the JS Kurama and JS Ishikari, and an Ojika Class Patrol Vessel of the Japanese Coast Guard based at Marcus Island. There was also a photo taken by a satellite in orbit that suggested an unknown submarine was headed for mainland Japan, but no signals could be linked to it.
Those ships, combined with the single Hayabusa Class Patrol Boat and an Australian Adelaide Class Frigate near Iwo Jima on a training exercise, made for a very formidable force of modern naval power. But that of course assumed the ships weren't destroyed piecemeal by Imperial Japanese Naval forces, or downtime American Naval forces whose first instinct would be to fire on any ship with a Japanese flag.
"We're gonna have a lot of orphaned ships here on the West Coast, although I have no idea where the hell we can put them." Harper commented. "Our facilities in Oregon are at damn near full capacity and putting them in California or Washington isn't happening."
"That assumes we can get them to the West Coast," Hoffman said darkly. "They could get swarmed by overwhelming numbers of Japanese ships and planes and sunk or the various Japanese ships might just decide to return to their homelands, and we'll have even more problems than we do now." Harper frowned at her Flight Commander's suggestion.
"You really think that'll happen, do you?" She said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I honestly have no idea," he shrugged. "Like with the Germans, many of those in the Japanese military are right wing leaning or conservatives. Sure, I don't believe any of them will turn into banzai charging fanatics, but they would love to see Japan maintain its status as a great military power, without suffering the humiliating defeat of World War Two."
"Even if that means siding with an Empire who'd view most of them as degenerates and too soft?" Harper argued. "Many of them are women, and you can't tell me that will go over well with them."
"I'm not saying it would, but I am saying that many Japanese even today still view Japan as a victim in World War Two, and that's not even touching the atomic bombs." Hoffman's tone now changed to one of frustration. "And if they see a chance to prevent their country from going down the road they took in the first place, they would do it. And just the knowledge of each individual sailor alone would be worth its weight in gold to Japan. Especially our capabilities and weaknesses."
"Like our listening arrays here and in Hawaii," Harper said. "Or that we've broken Japanese Naval Codes, and can listen to them freely."
"That's just one issue we've been discussing lately. Granted, that was before a dozen Japanese ships appeared across the Pacific, with intentions we can only take a guess at." Hoffman paused, letting out another tired, frustrated sigh. "And of course this is before we get into the Bonin or fucking Paracel Islands. Japan will not give those up without a fight, but at the same time, neither can we." He shook his head in frustration. "Thanks for the heads up, Harper." He said, his face and expression softening.
"What do we do now, sir?"
"Right now I need you to stay online with those ships, keep the channels open, and let our sailors in Portland know what's going on. Maybe the Tico we got here can get in contact with them too. I'm gonna report this to our commander, and from there lord only knows what we'll do." As he turned to leave, he was met by a weary and pale faced A1C, with bloodshot eyes filled with pain and anger."
"A high priority report from Pease, sir," The young man said, his voice cracking as he handed Hoffman the manila folder he held. "They got the Statue of Liberty sir. They blew her fucking head off."
When he said that, everyone in the room turned to look at the man, expressions ranging from shock to outright disbelief.
"Bullshit!" One of the Staff Sergeants in the room said. Harper's hands tightened into fists and her nails dug into her palms, while Hoffman's eyes twitched uncontrollably for a few seconds, rage threatening to burst forth. He took the folder, opened it, and was met with a summary of events having just taken place off New York City, with accompanying photographs.
"God help us all," Hoffman said, handing the folder off to Lieutenant Harper, who was surrounded by the Section Chief and NCOIC of her team. Chief Williams looked as if he were about to explode, while Technical Sergeant O'Hare just stared blankly at the horrifying photos.
There stood the Statue of Liberty, her upper torso gone! While the arm holding the torch jutted out from the waters around Liberty Island, her entire torso above the tabula ansata was just gone. Debris lay scattered all around Liberty Island and chunks lay just visible in the water. Near the entrance to the Lower Bay, sat a burning monitor, the USS Puritan.
Another photo, taken from the camera of a Coast Guard helicopter, showed the culprit; A German Scharnhorst Class Battleship.
By the time the photo was taken, the ship, identified as the German Battleship Scharnhorst, was dead in the water. It burned in the waters just a few miles east of Fort Hancock, as several American Battleships surrounded, and pounded the ship to pieces with their main guns. Directly ahead of the Scharnhorst in the Lower Bay was the battleship USS Alabama, alongside the armored cruisers USS New York, and USS Brooklyn, acting as a blocking force to prevent further movement into the bay ahead of the German ship.
Behind it, the battleship Connecticut, the lead ship of the Great White Fleet, as well as the battleships Virginia, Illinois, and Missouri, shelled the Scharnhorst unceasingly.
Another set of photos showed another German Battleship burning off Long Island, as the fast battleship USS Massachusetts ran her down, with battleships New York and newer Texas in hot pursuit. The time lapse photos showed her taking multiple hits, listing heavily to port, and fires raging on her deck.
The next two photos, which would become an icon of American Naval Aviation, showed the crippling of the mighty Gneisenau.
An SBD dropped a 1,000 pound bomb on the armored deck of the Scharnhorst, penetrating the deck just ahead of the forward turret, detonating the ammunition magazine. A strike which was followed up by a torpedo hit by an SB2U Vindicator, destroying the propellers, and leaving it dead in the water.
Unable to escape, and two of her turrets already rendered inoperable, the American battleships and their escorting cruisers, and overhead dive bombers, let loose with a merciless barrage against the Germans. A direct hit from Massachusetts destroyed its third and final turret, while the Texas scored a direct hit on the bridge.
The final summary detailed below, dated as being finalized not even half an hour ago, stated the two German warships were still sinking, and that surviving sailors were being picked up and executed. It was hinted in the summary that feelings of mercy were quite low between Americans from all three time periods. Fires still raged in New York from shells that landed around the city. While casualties were still being counted, they were most certainly in the thousands. Three Battleships, the Kearsarge, Kentucky, and Maine, were sunk outright by the German battleships, as well as the monitor Puritan.
Many others sustained minor to severe damage, like the USS Indiana, who beached herself on the beaches of Fort Hancock to avoid sinking.
"President Roosevelt is gonna be out for blood," One of the airmen in the room spoke aloud, falling back into his chair, and staring up at the ceiling.
"Roosevelt is gonna be out for blood?" Harper said incredulously, her normally calm demeanor disappearing, and her native New York accent slipped out. "Chief Williams is from New York, I'm from New York! And our home just got attacked!"
"Right when the Germans announce their sending a fleet to New York on a diplomatic mission," Hoffman said tiredly.
"Something tells me that fleet isn't gonna get close to New York now." Technical Sergeant O'Hare said.
"Oh it will, at least part of it. They'll just be under the guns of the entire Atlantic Fleet, begging them to step out of line just once." Hoffman said, flipping through the last few pages of the report, and sighing. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be in for a long next couple of days."
The secondary report detailed other radio transmission, more numerous, coming from Germany and locations around the Northern Atlantic. Modern transmissions, mirroring that of those in the Pacific, albeit with some rather outdated broadband frequencies and callsigns being used.
"So what the fuck do we do now?"
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Dorm 5
Springfield ANG Base
18 Days Post Event
0930 Hours
When 1st Lieutenant Denise Harper finally got off duty at just past 0900 hours today, the United States was in an uproar. President Roosevelt, upon being informed of the attack on New York City, and the damage wrought by the Germans, he wept. When she was finally alone in the confines of her own room, away from the world, and behind thick walls and a locked door, she too had wept.
Like President Roosevelt, New York City was her home. Even if the New York City that existed now was a relic from the early 20th century, it was still New York! The Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, The Statue of Liberty, all still existed even in 1907, even if they weren't upgraded to the modern specifications she was used to. They all meant something to her, reminded Harper of her childhood, family, and of life. About how her parents always took her to the Statue of Liberty when she was little, how her father explained what it meant to him, and what it should mean to her as well.
And it did mean a lot to her. She wasn't a conservative by any stretch, she did love her country, and the ideals it should stand for. Ideals it stood up for in Korea, Taiwan, the Baltics, and Guyana, all in her lifetime. Ideals her country failed to uphold in the disasters that were the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.
Seeing such a renowned and loved symbol of American freedom and ideals being blown in half by Nazi battleships, one of the last few things in this world that reminded her of her old life, hurt her. It hurt millions of Americans across the country, in all three time displaced sections. A news helicopter from New Hampshire, flying against the 'No Fly' order in place to preserve aviation fuel and aircraft for emergency use only, broadcast a live feed of the carnage in New York City that hundreds of thousands of Americans saw.
American morale was already low due to so many millions of Americans being ripped from their respective periods in time, and thrown into this world. The fact that they'd likely never see any of their families again had produced an atmosphere of dread and depression. No one knew if something like this would happen again or who it might take if it did.
Then the attacks on Oregon and New York happened. Thousands of Americans were dead, several major warships had been sunk, and America's largest city was dealt a great deal of damage. And while the perpetrators had been killed or captured, the United States wanted blood. There was just one problem with that.
Imperial Germany was not Nazi Germany, and the two Scharnhorst Battleships that attacked New York City were not those of the Kaiserliche Marine. The situation with the Japanese submarines was even more complicated. While they did belong to Japan, interrogations of the surviving pilot shot down in Astoria had revealed that the submarine he had launched from, and likely those accompanying his, were from 1942.
An actual attack from either nation had yet to occur. The closest there was to any real combat was a few Japanese scout planes shot down over the Philippines by American ships in the region. And while more Japanese ships were surrounding the Philippines, recent events across the Pacific had their fleet scattering in multiple directions. However, it looked as if America and Japan were destined for a showdown in the Pacific sooner or later.
"A war we aren't prepared for," Harper lamented to herself, falling back onto her bed, and staring up at the ceiling. All of these events occurring seemed to make any potential diplomatic solution with the two empires less and less likely, not to mention all the new ships running around, many of which had allegiances unknown. They might be from the modern day, but nothing prevented them from going to Japan or Germany to help uplift their homelands.
"Or help them fight a war against us," She said.
That was another major concern the higher ups were discussing. If any of the various Japanese or German ships decided to stand with their respective homelands in a war against the United States, the technological advantage the American Armed Forces held would be nullified. Modern radars and anti-ship missiles would be very good at chewing up and spitting out Second World War era planes and ships. Especially aircraft carriers, of which America had no means to replace.
She was upset and she was angry. Upset that this had happened to her country and angry at those who blamed the uptimers for failing to stop this. There was no way to predict this strange phenomena, whatever it was. They would just have to weather the storm.
A knock on the door shook her from her thoughts.
"Hey, Harper, you in there?" Came the voice of 1st Lieutenant Cynthia Redding, roommate, and one of the few pilots attached to the base's very small air wing, consisting of three C-26 Metroliners that should have already been retired. But the needs of the Air Force kept them flying longer than they were supposed to. Granted, the retirement date was for last year, so it wasn't as bad as it could be. "I forgot my key before I left, can you let me in?"
With a sigh, Harper got up from her bed, walked through the common area, and opened the door. Standing in the hallway, she was met with a smiling redhead wearing PT clothes, and holding a gym bag in her left hand.
"Thanks Harper, you saved my ass!" She said, practically skipping through the doorway, before coming to a halt in front of her open room, and turned to Harper. "Have you been crying?" She asked, watching as Harper simply walked past her, and back into her room.
"You heard about New York, right?" Harper asked as she flopped back down onto her bed. Redding winced slightly as she remembered that Harper was from New York City, and was one of the first to hear about the attack by the two battleships.
"Yeah, came over the net while we were out on patrol tracking a Japanese submarine up near the Canadian West Coast. Some of the escorting Red Tails were especially pissed about it." Redding said. "I'm sorry, Harper, really. I know all this has been hard on you."
"Oh you do, huh?" Harper huffed as she finally got to untying her boots, and tossed them over to her wall closet. "Whatever."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Redding raised her hands up in a gesture of mock surrender. "I'm just trying to be nice, what's with the attitude?"
"Look, I just wanna be left alone right now, Redding. Can I be left alone?" Harper pleaded, taking her OCP top off, and flinging it over her chair.
"This is about the various downtimers, ain't it?" Redding said, her own Georgian accent coming out in full, prompting a look from Harper that wasn't quite a glare, but wasn't exactly friendly either. The look gave Redding all the answers she needed. "Figured as much. They've given us a fair bit of shit for working with the Red Tails."
"And I bet they get along real well with you on account of how you sound, don't they?" Harper spat. "While I'm regarded as nothing more than a dressed up nigger by most of these inbred hicks!"
Redding recoiled at the pain and vehemence in Harper's voice while her face shifted to that of a hateful glare.
"Hicks who seem to think we're to blame for the attacks in Oregon and New York, who think that we're soft, and that we've got too many women and niggers in our ranks to be of use! Motherfuckers who don't realize that without us, America doesn't even stand a chance against Germany, much less fucking Japan!"
"I'm not fucking arguing that, Harper! I'm on your side here, so I don't know why I'm getting bitched out here!" Redding snapped back. "You think you're the only one who's been dealing with this shit? Because you sure as fuck aren't!"
"You're not the one who's been called a 'worthless nigger' to her fucking face!" Harper snarled. "Whatever you've been dealing with, 'flygirl', isn't shit compared to what me and others who look like me have been taking over these last few fucking weeks. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to be left alone!" Harper finished, slamming her door in Redding's face. Locking the deadbolt, she quickly shed the rest of her uniform, turned off the lights, and fell into bed.
This night would be the first in a very long time where she cried herself to sleep.
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Next chapter features the 16 Regiment of Foot on the White Cliffs of Dover overlooking the Imperial German Navy storming the Dover Strait!
