Sharon- United Human Faction- Night 49
The Combined Faction Navy prepared for full assault on the Chinese in Hawaii. The situation was far worse than anyone had anticipated. Anning hid his fear under a cloak of protocol and kept his men occupied with constant drilling. San Francisco's Admiral watched for the green flash each night, memorizing the radio cues given to him by his more experienced counterpart. Sharon regretted the decision to only bring two units from the mainland. While the crews of her escort ships would be able to hold their own, they didn’t have the experience of those who had seen combat in the central states. She wouldn’t be able to control the battle with so few men. The Chinese had the upper hand.
On the fourth day of drilling, the an enemy drone spotted one of Anning’s reconnaissance boats. The Faction would still be able to strike first, but the decision of when to strike was decided by fate. They would attack within the following ten hours, or they would lose the war.
"Everyone needs to be ready in two hours. We're taking the western islands immediately to cut off the enemy supply convoys, and after that we'll need to count on a civilian revolt on the Big Island," Sharon muttered over the map spread across the USS Gerald R. Ford's CIC, talking more for her own sake than for the officers'.
"There's no way to know what will happen within the civilian population," Anning interjected. "Who exactly brings a gun to their honeymoon? This is a vacation spot, not a militia training ground. Hawaii wouldn't have involved itself at all had the Chinese not arrived. We need to rely on solid tactics, not luck."
"Yeah, and I bet you would have said the Faction was just a bunch of kids with hockey pads if we hadn't shut down half the country right underneath your nose, eh?" yelled one of the Faction captains.
"Show some respect. You don't stand a chance against Miyamoto's fleet without this ship's support," said one of Anning's sailors, standing and turning from his post.
"Miyamoto. That's a Jap name, right? Sure seems like there're a lot of turncoats in these seas, don't it?" the young captain spat, turning to Sharon and leaving the room.
"Excuse our men's rudeness," apologized the Faction Admiral. "We've all seen a lot back home. This isn't a clean war."
The captain's words struck Sharon first with doubt, but then with inspiration. There was no chance of her forces fighting Anning's once they engaged the Chinese, but perhaps one of the enemy could be swayed. Japan had been brutally crushed by the Koreans while America refused to fight, but the humiliation of Chinese rule outweighed America's sloth. They didn't stand a chance in extended conflict. She would have to rely on luck and just a pinch of political psychology.
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