The Adventurous Ero Path of a Sailor

Kim put the radio down as a warning siren went off on the ship's PA system. "Sir, the men are assembling to battle-stations right now! But we still have several stuck in town."

"That's the least of our worries right now. Where the hell is Ravencross? And where is Lt. Star?"

The two of them looked at each other before looking back at Jack. "Star is in town somewhere and Ravencross is—"

"Ravencross is here," said the missing commander as he stepped forward into the bridge. "Who the fuck is shelling us?"

Jack tossed him a pair of binoculars. "Take a look for yourself but it looks like the Occitanians are ready for war."

He turned to face Kim as she screamed another order on the ship's radio. "Kim, I need you to take over for Victor. I need those boilers started and we need to get out of port right now."

Kim's face paled as Luke turned around to face them. "Surely we're not going to go after them? They could easily sink us."

It was Luke rather than Jack who answered. "You bet your ass we're going after them. If they're going to sink us, I want us to at least get a few good shots in and kill a few dozen of those sons of bitches."

Jack turned back to Kim. "Lieutenant, can you start the boilers? Can you get moving on this?"

She nodded her head. "Yes, sir!"

In the next instant, a stream of orders began to issue from her command and the entire bridge felt the ship startle to life. Soon enough the giant propellers began to swirl and with a gentle lurch, the ship began to pierce the waves of the harbor as it crawled toward the jetty.

"Let's just hope we can get out of here in time before they destroy the whole damn base," said Jack, clutching his binoculars and keeping them trained on the Occitanian cruisers.

"Looks like we won't be fighting alone, Jack." Luke pointed across the harbor where the Destiny began to inch forward as well, following in the wake provided by the Valiant.

"We'll see if this Wainwright guy can fight," said Jack, before turning back to the enemy. "Norman, are those guns ready to fire?"

"Thirty seconds, sir, and the forward three turrets will be ready to offer fire."

"Excellent, have you fixed position on those bastards?"

"Yes, sir, we are fixed on the closer one to the left that's about two thousand yards out."

Jack looked back to the horizon and quickly settled on nearest enemy cruiser. He mentally counted down the seconds until the guns were ready, finding it much too slow for his liking. Around him the ordered chaos of a warship in battle stemmed forth with steady streams of orders and garbled radio traffic. Finally, he heard the announcement he was waiting for.

"Forward turrets ready to fire, sir!" announced Norman.

"Fire on my command, Lieutenant. Now!"

Norman radioed the command to the weapons crew and in a manner of seconds, the largest explosion Jack had felt all morning burst out of the nine guns of the three forward turrets. Stunning streaks of molten fire rose across the horizon and flew to the target. Jack and the rest of the bridge could only hold their breath as they waited for them to meet the enemy.

Seconds past by until Jack saw the impact of the guns fall just short of their mark, splashing into the open ocean in front of the enemy cruiser.

"Miss on all guns. We need more range, Lieutenant!"

"We need to get closer, sir! We can't hit them this far away!"

"Damnit," Jack swore, watching the ships on the horizon. The one furthest away seemed to have reversed course and now they were quickly heading toward a morning fog bank off to the side of the island.

"Load the guns again now. If they get into that fog bank, we'll never be able to find them! Kim, make sure all boilers are running. We need all the speed we can get to bring the rear turrets into action!"

Both lieutenants radioed their orders in and soon enough Jack heard the loud roar from the boilers as the ship hit its max speed of thirty-two knots. It didn't seem to be helping near enough.

"Jack, they're pulling away from us," said Luke, stating the obvious at that point.