Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

21st August 1659

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Bharatiya Overseas Territory Seychelles

The naval base in Seychelles is already lively even before sunrise. Everyone is doing final preparations before the battle takes place, and all the warships are being stocked up with necessary ammunition, weaponry, supplies, and essential materials. The Guwahati Class Armed Merchant ships are being loaded up with all the materials critical for the war, while at the same time, the sailors and warriors that would be going to battle in 24 hours have joined together for a peaceful breakfast, potentially for the last time since their lives weren't guaranteed from the time they had signed up for the job. The mid-level and higher naval leaders are taking their last break as they just finished doing the final checkups on the ships and their plans. One last briefing in the evening, and after that, it is war.

Commander Gautam sat in his office in a Padmasana, meditating and doing breathing exercises to calm his mind and rid it of all distractions.

Gautam knew that the battle he was about to fight was going to leave a lasting impact on the Bharatiya Empire for the foreseeable future. Even though the current Bharatiya Empire could afford to take the loss as it had already become a behemoth that the West could not takedown in one blow, failing in the Naval net operation would deal a significant blow to the Bharatiya Empire.

Not only would the failure hugely damage the Bharatiya Navy, but it would also make it harder for the Bharatiya Empire to gain control over the islands surrounding Madagascar. In fact, even Seychelles might be at risk of being lost.

With the western Indian Ocean islands like Mauritius, Seychelles, Réunion, Madagascar, Comoros, and Mayotte falling into the hands of the Western European countries, the Bharatiya Navy would be permanently deadlocked within the Indian Ocean in the West, and the only door would be in the East. But unfortunately, towards the East, there were no fully developed economies like there were in the West. If Vijay had been born a few hundred years ago, maybe China would have been an option because a few centuries ago the Ming Empire was still a dominant power in both economy and military, but the current situation in China is chaotic and not suitable for business.

Europe is the only fully developed economy that Bharat can do business with. However, if Bharat wanted to connect with Europe amidst the blockade of Western powers at the Western gateway of the Indian Ocean, then the Bharatiya Navy would have to traverse the Pacific Ocean, move goods across the Americas, and then reach Europe, which was simply impossible to achieve. The cost of transportation alone would render the low price of Bharatiya goods no longer feasible.

Bharat was better off transporting goods by land through Persia. All these thoughts had been swirling in the mind of Gautam, greatly disturbing his peace.

Even though Gautam was only asked to do his best by both the admiral and His Majesty the Emperor, he still felt pressured to imagine what was at stake. Moreover, the admiral had generously allowed him to command nearly half of the new naval force that had only been recently built. Imagining the trust placed in him and feeling the weight of the responsibility on his back, he just couldn't handle it. The pressure was simply not something someone who was barely 35 could bear. So, Gautam had taken up yoga to relax his mind and stay focused. Fortunately, yoga worked wonders for him as he found that he was able to control his emotions much more easily while he did yoga asanas. His meditation session lasted for a whole hour, and then he slowly opened his crystal-clear eyes that looked like a calm lake with boundless depth.

Gautam quickly got dressed in his blue naval uniform, adorned his star on the shoulder, which represented his rank as a commander of a naval fleet in the Bharatiya Navy, and finally, he adorned his cap, tapered off with gold threads, making it easier to identify him.

"Sir!"

*Stomp!*

As soon as Gautam arrived in the war room, the members of the Research and Analysis Wing immediately stood up and saluted in unison, their sound reverberating through the naval base and the vibrations of their stomp felt across the room.

Gautam walked over to his chair at a steady pace, looked at everyone, nodded, and sat down.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The members of RAW soon followed.

Gautam looked towards a man wearing a black-on-black camouflage uniform. "What do we know about the enemy?" he questioned.

The agent from the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya calmly stood up to answer, "There isn't much change from what we had observed a week ago, sir. It is still the same number of warships. The only minute change is that we will have to calculate the strength of the Holy Roman Empire separately since we had not accounted for the Holy Roman Empire to participate in this battle."

Gautam nodded as he stroked his chin in contemplation.

Hearing the answer from the intelligence agent, the analyst voiced his opinion. "In that case, we have a clear advantage over the Europeans, don't we?" There was a smirk on his face.

Gautam frowned as his line of thought was disrupted. Just when he was about to refute the words, the tactician did it for him.

"No, that is not true. Although we have a larger overall tonnage than our enemy, the strength of the navy cannot be measured like this."

"The only reason why we have so many ships and why our enemy does not is because we are closer to our home base, which enables us to send our smaller warships to the battle while the enemy can only use larger battleships to do the same. "

"So, although in overall tonnage we have an advantage since we have a total of 322 warships while the enemy only has 226, after calculating only the tonnage of warships of 1,000 tonnes and above, the total tonnage of the enemy is 34,400 tonnes, while ours is around 36,000 tonnes."

"Although in theory we still have an advantage, the advantage is only having one more battleship than the enemy, and even that is irrelevant since we are not fighting a defensive battle but an offensive battle, meaning it is much harder for us to defeat the other party than for the other party to defend against us. Not to mention, the enemies have islands like Mauritius, Réunion, Comoros, and Mayotte to utilize. And on top of that, on average, European battleships have 10 more cannons for every 1,000-tonne battleship and 40 more for every 2,000-tonne battleship."

The tactician looked at the analyst with a piercing gaze. "After knowing all this, do you still think that we have an absolute advantage, kind sir?" Although the words were polite on the surface, everyone could hear the hint of disdain hidden beneath.

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The war room suddenly became very silent. Even the breathing could be heard, creating an atmosphere tense enough that it could be cut with a knife.

"Alright!" Fortunately, Gautam broke down the awkward atmosphere. "Now we know we are equally matched in terms of whole cards. Then are there any thoughts about how we should approach the battle?" he asked.

Silent murmurs were immediately heard within the war room until the tactician stood up and said his opinion. "The only way is to fight head-on, Commander. I don't see any other option." His eyes, firm and determined, looked like those of a person ready to back up his claims.

"No, how is it possible? It's too dangerous," the analyst profusely shook his head. "Direct conflict with the European navy is very disadvantageous to us. There should be another way," he said.

This time everyone actually agreed with him. "Yes, he is right."

"Fighting head-on is too dangerous. There will be a lot of casualties," they said.

"I won't deny that," the tactician shrugged, readily agreeing to their comments. "But can any of you come up with a better plan? If any of you indeed did such a thing, then I would wholeheartedly support the commander accepting your suggestion."

Everyone began to think.

"How about we focus on only one island and capture it as soon as possible?" a consultant asked.

"No, that won't work," the tactician shook his head. "If we go for one island, then the naval forces on the three other islands will get the opportunity to flank us from any of the three directions. We wouldn't even know what hit us."

"We may have won some naval battles, but we are no match for Europeans in the open sea. They have developed warfare tactics for almost 1,000 years; we cannot simply compare with them."

Everyone's faces suddenly became shrivelled. However, they had not given up on finding a better solution yet. "How about instead of going for the four islands where the European navy is located, why don't we aim directly at the island of Madagascar? If we can fully occupy this island, it shouldn't be a problem to get a foothold, isn't it?" a young theoretical researcher suggested.

Everyone's eyes immediately lit up as they felt the boy's plan was feasible, but sadly, the tactician still shook his head.

To be continued...