Small boats were clustered around some, probably belonging to fishing communities or one of the many villages devoted to harvesting salt from the shores of the Seto-naikai. As the drone moved away from the twisting, corrugated channels and inlets of Edajima Island toward Hashirajima itself, larger vessels began to appear. Destroyers and corvettes. Oilers, seaplane tenders, and torpedo boats. Minelayers and depot ships, submarines and sub chasers. She smiled at the thought of being pursued by the latter.

The first capital ship appeared on screen, and the Havoc’s commander whistled softly.

“You sexy, sexy bitch. What d’you say, Chief?”

Her senior enlisted man, CPO Flemming, leaned forward to peer at the screen.

“Looks like a second-class cruiser, ma’am. Maybe the Kumano or Mogami.”

Willet smiled at her chief petty officer.

“You should really get out more, Roy.”

“Tried to pop outside for a quick smoke before, Cap’n. Got wet.”

Big Eye was relaying footage of more and more capital ships. But not as many as Willet had expected.

“Have we got a full house, Ms. Lohrey?” she asked.

“Afraid not, ma’am. Looks like some of them shot through. Only two carriers visible so far.”

Willet took up a position behind the intel boss. Lieutenant Lohrey danced her fingertips across a touch screen so quickly that they covered the brightly glowing surface in afterimages. Extra windows opened up, putting on view more cruisers and battleships, but refusing to display any carriers beyond the two flattips they’d already tagged.

At least two-thirds of the Combined Fleet was missing.

“Bugger,” muttered Willet. “Okay. Comms. Burst transmission to Kolhammer, maximum compression. The fleet has either scattered or sortied. Havoc to engage remaining targets on schedule. Be advised there is a risk of encountering significant enemy surface units.”

The warning sent, Willet returned to her tasking.

Hashirajima still presented an attractive target. At least a dozen very large warships and twice as many destroyers lay at anchor beneath the unblinking eyes of the drone.

“Weapons, designate the flattops.”

“Targets assigned, ma’am,” replied the dour Scot, Lieutenant Yates.

A signal pulsed out, and seventy-five hundred meters above Hashirajima a multifaceted laser node winked on beneath the Big Eye drone. Two thin beams of coherent light from outside the visible spectrum locked onto the flight decks of the two carriers.

Back in the Havoc’s CIC, Willet chewed her lip and quietly contemplated the flatscreen that was carrying real-time video from the target area. Picking up a light wand, she drew boxes around the four largest gunships.

“That looks like Kakuta’s Aleutian force,” she said. “That’d make those big bastards the Hyuga, Ise, Fuso, and Yamashiro. Weapons, put a White Dwarf into each of them.”