With no hesitation, the Second fleet sailed right through into the limit of their radio communications with their main base and beyond. Of course, there were workarounds, but they weren’t nearly as effective. A few ships would be equipped with far less advanced communications technologies so that they could be the inbetweeners of the Second fleet and the main base. 40 kilometers to the island, 35, 30, 25, 20. As soon as they hit 15 kilometers off the coast of the island, they began to detect the enemy ships. The fleet immediately split up into five smaller ones and proceeded to head their different paths to attack 5 different ports.

Second husband would take the most defendable port so that the other four fleets would have an easier time attacking the other ones. Zheng Zhi Long would take the one that was isolated from all of the other ports with Baron by his side. As for the other three, the majority of the remaining elders would be stationed there to stall the enemy. In addition, a few more would be stationed in between each fleet so that they would be the first to know if there was going to be a surprise enemy attack which they would make the news known to their allies.

With Zheng Zhi Long’s speedy ships, they were able to sneak through the cover of the night to the highest risk battlefield. From their spies already inside, this port was not nearly as heavily-defended as the port that Second was dealing with, but it still wouldn’t be an easy task. Zheng Zhi Long and Baron were granted the special use of ten Type IX submarines to see as they saw fit. Now, the problem with these subs was that it did not house a lot of ammunition for its torpedoes, but that wasn’t a problem as they had quite a few supply ships ready for such scenarios. Normally, relying on these wouldn’t be very smart, but with virtually no enemies behind them, it was a pretty safe bet. However, they still had to be vigilant for the off chance something like that did occur.

As soon as the first ships got close enough to the turrets and other defense systems, the battle was on and the explosions did not cease for even a moment. Baron and his aerial team got up into the air to provide air support wherever they could while also bringing in new developments from the air which was a godsend to the naval force below. They had to be extremely careful that they were not spotted in any way so they decided to bulk up their defenses in the sky many more times than they normally would and continued on with their assignments.

The battle for the island needed to be quick, decisive and done in a manner that made it near impossible for the Vesper troops on the island to be captured all in one fell swoop. However, the firepower of the island seemed to be a lot more powerful than the reports indicated. What was supposed to be a slightly difficult task became instantly leagues more difficult the moment that it was revealed who they were up against! It was the great elder of the Vesper faction. Not only was he touted as one of the greatest defenders that were on Vesper’s side, but it also was not an exaggeration to say that few people would be able to get through his defenses. Resourceful, cunning, and thorough. These were the qualities that he possessed in warfare long before he was recognized by the Vesper inner-circle.

Now that he had centuries of practice with the new blueprints he had been given, it would not be an easy battle. Even though the great elder was in charge of the defense of the entire island, he would not be able to defend every port on his own, that was why he had been given the aid of a couple of other elders as well as one of the rising stars of the Vesper faction, Wu San Gui. He pitted himself against, the Second husband so as to distract his enemies’ ace, then made 4 out of the 5 other elders go defend the relatively isolated port. Finally, he pitted Wu San Gui, Ho Yang, and the last elder on his side against the elders that were sent by Second.

These matchups were not designed to break through the offensive fleet, but rather to deal a big enough blow to the fleet through the defeat of Zheng Zhi Long and Second husband. If this could be accomplished, then he would have essentially won. As for the 3 other ports, all they needed to do was to stall.

Second husband could see it during the third day of battle that their strategy to capture the island would no longer be able to work so he had to devise something else that would be able to. After consulting a few others, he decided to have all the elders on his side go on the offensive, even the ones that were supposed to be between each fleet. This would provide enough of a distraction for a day or two at most. Following this, he would make the trip to the nearest port in a small ten ship fleet and take control over there.

The Second’s new plan did not really change for the forces of Zheng Zhi Long so they were not really informed to make sure that as few people as possible would have info on this matter. After reaching the other fleet safely, he set the second part of his plan into motion. He temporarily retreated the three fleets led by 3 different sets of elders and set up a smokescreen as fast as they could. All 3 fleets merged into one and they conducted a night raid with everything they had. It was certainly a surprise to their enemies, but all of this effort and preparation would have been for naught if they could not break through even one port. It was a good thing that they did manage to before any reinforcements arrived. Just barely.