And the Iron Guild still didn't know about their torpedoes. Even one of them in the right spot would ruin a heavy ship's day, and Shane believed they might be able to get three or four on target. But to do that they needed to close the distance.
More star shells blossomed in the sky above. Shane seesawed the wheel back and forth, trying to remain unpredictable. Even slight movements were enough to get them out of trouble when moving in the dark at high speed. But he still didn't think it was enough. One shot slammed into the water less than twenty feet off the starboard side of their bow. A few inches lower and in might have gone straight through the ship.
“Jean, can you get the torpedo controls and the engine room on the line?”
“Just a moment.”
“What's up?” Ryan asked.
“I think we're going to need to redline it. Bailey, what's going to happen if we start pushing the engines?”
“They might explode, of course. Just like all engines will if you push them too hard.”
Shane spun the wheel again. “These are free crafted. Doesn't that make it more vulnerable?”
“It does, but we've tested the design. Rho has used it without many issues.”
Ryan spoke up. “It might be better if Bailey comes back and-”
“No,” she said flatly. “Absolutely not. You have the right perks to keep that from happening, and you know the engines. You don't know the torpedoes, and getting through means nothing if we can't sink it.”
Shane nodded. “This is your call. You're running the engine room. Can we make it if we redline it, or can we not?”
Ryan didn't answer for a few seconds, and Shane had to whip the wheel back and forth to avoid more shots.
“Ryan?”
“We can do it, but don't go overboard,” he said. “I'll warn you if you're stretching it.”
“Got it. Hang on everyone.”
Shane toggled the lock on the throttle and pushed the gate back, then shoved it forward as far as he dared. He held it there for a second, expecting to hear the sound of the phone line ringing at any moment, but nothing happened.
And according to the instruments, they were picking up speed.
“Home stretch,” he said, looking out the front of the bridge. “Let's break through their line.”
“Fire.”
“Firing.”
Kelvin felt the gun reverberate, and another shell streaked toward the eastern enemy formation. Once again their shot missed, but it forced the enemy to take evasive action. They returned fire, but their zigzagging made it difficult for them to aim.
Suppressive fire. That was all they were meant to do now, keeping the enemy off their back until they slipped past the enemy line and made their final run on the enemy cruiser.
In his mind Kelvin still couldn't quite wrap his head around the thought. He knew they could hurt large warships with their torpedoes, but still, they were going up against a much larger vessel, maybe even twice their size. So far their speed and small profile had kept them alive, but one hit from the cruiser would put them on the bottom. He had heard the patrol ship's shell clang off the superstructure, but a shot from the cruiser would have smashed it inward through sheer kinetic force.
“Loading.”
Kelvin adjusted. “Fire.”
“Firing.”
Their shell missed again. They loaded and fired as fast as they could acquire targets and load the cannon. Still no hits, and the smell of burning powder was becoming more and more evident. Spent shell casings clanked around the floor of the turret and off his boots. How many rounds had they fired? How many more could they manage before the barrel became too hot to shoot without risking a premature detonation?
It didn't matter. They couldn't play conservative, not with so many enemy ships bearing down on them. They had to break through, had to keep the enemy at bay, and if that meant losing their rear turret, so be it. So long as the ship made it into port that was all that really mattered.
But he wanted to score another hit. The one in a million shot during the chase off Kromus felt like it had been eons ago. This fight had different conditions, and they had to face much stronger enemies, but he still wanted to inflict a little hurt on the enemy.
Kelvin decided to slow down for a moment to allow the barrel to cool a little. It would also give him a few extra seconds to aim.
“Loaded.”
“Hold on a second. I'm going to aim this one a little more.”
“Shane-”
“I know what Shane said, but I don't want to have a shot blowing up in the barrel. This is fine.”
Kelvin adjusted the elevation a little more and waited for a moment.
“Fire.”
“Firing.”
Shell casings clanked against his feet as the destroyer shook again from the recoil. Kelvin focused in on his target and saw something explode. The shell had impacted, at least. Was it a direct hit? A glancing one? A near miss? He couldn't quite tell in the darkness, and the star shells were fading away. The patrol ships had stopped firing them and focused on trying to sink them.
Corey tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. “Looks like we're getting through the enemy line.”
Kelvin heard a howl, and several more shells splashed into the water, this time several hundred yards too long. The gunners were probably adjusting to a flat trajectory, and that made every miss go hundreds of yards long.
But in a minute or less they'd be in the middle of the enemy formation, and they couldn't fire without the risk of hitting their own comrades. The cruiser might have those problems as well.
“What do we do?” Corey asked.
“Let's wait until we're level with them and then try to get a hit,” Kelvin said. “We should be able to manage that at point-blank range, right?”
Brandon grabbed the phone as the destroyer passed through the middle of the enemy formation.
“Jean, can you put Shane on?”
“It's already on speaker.”
“Shane what do you want us to do?”
“Attack the cruiser. Distract it while we get lined up for our attack run. The patrol ships don't matter. We can outrun them.”
“Understood,” Brandon said. He hung up and adjusted the gun's heading.
“We're attacking the cruiser, I assume?”
“That would be correct.”
“You do know the gun isn't going to do anything to a cruiser.”
“Have you ever kickboxed?”
“No. Have you?”
Brandon made a few adjustments. “I did a little, but a friend was really into it. He explained jabs to me. They're not powerful when compared to other punches and kicks, but they're quick and they can be used to catch your opponent's attention. If you keep smacking them in the face with the jab they're not going to be able to see the knockout punch or a kick coming.”
“And that's what we're doing?”
Brandon made the final adjustments. “That's what we're doing. Throwing jabs until Bailey can hit them with the knockout punch.”
Another series of shells fell off the stern, but Bailey paid them little heed. The enemy gunners aboard the cruiser were shooting long, unable to compensate for their destroyer's sheer speed. Every time they adjusted the vessel had moved further than they had anticipated, especially with Shane redlining the engines.
She moved down the line and adjusted the launchers, setting them at varying angles to create a decent spread. The cruiser had started its engines and was slowly picking up steam, but they'd be on top of the enemy vessel before it could get away or start making evasive maneuvers. One or two torpedoes could be dodged. A dozen would be impossible to avoid.
Bailey returned to the control panel and grabbed the phone. “Shane, I angled the launchers to the port side. Try to go around the stern and cross parallel to it.”
“Distance?”
“As close as you dare.”
“Got it. Hang in there.”
Bailey stood at the console
and waited. Shells continued to rain down around and behind them, the larger calibers now joined by the cruiser's smaller guns. Water rained down on her, but she held her position and kept her eyes forward.
This was it. This was the final test, the culmination of months of frustration, of adventure and hard work, of experiments and theories. It all came down to the skills of the other engineers and her aim.
The destroyer wove its way through the final approach. Bailey took a deep breath and gazed intently at the looming bulk of the Iron Guild cruiser. A powerful warship, a symbol of their might and status, the proverbial iron fist they could bring down to smash anyone that dared to oppose them. And yet, it could be killed.
She triggered the torpedoes.
With a series of clanks the weapons lurched forward along the rails and splashed into the ocean. Bailey watched them go for a moment, but the darkness swallowed them.
She thought about waiting to see the results, but then thought better of it and headed back to the engine room. They still needed to get back to port.
Shane watched with anticipation as the seconds ticked by. Every moment that ticked by meant the torpedoes inched closer to their target. Just a little longer, and…
One geyser of water shot up along the side of the cruiser's hull, then another, then another. More explosions rocked the enemy ship.
“How many splashes was that?” he asked.
“I counted six,” Jean said.
Half of the spread. Not bad for their first attempt, but Shane was stunned by the results of the torpedo attack. The cruiser buckled in three places and rolled over violently. In the darkness he saw the shadow of their foe breaking apart, and suddenly the bow reared up into the air at an angle.
Their attack had split the ship clean in two.
Shane had trouble gripping the wheel for a few moments as the sheer magnitude of their exploits hit him. They had just run the gauntlet through a dozen patrol craft and an enemy cruiser, damaged a few of the patrol ships, and sunk the enemy cruiser, all while sustaining little to no damage to their ship.
One of the phone lines rang.
“Simone says we have a clear route to Beylan. No enemy ships in our path. The rest are trying to turn around, but...”
With so many ships in the channel they'd have a hard time maneuvering, and the larger patrol ships didn't have a great turning radius. By the time they'd be able to bring their guns to bear the destroyer would be gone.
Shane eased down the throttle back to normal levels. “Jean, can you set the line to all channel?”
“Coming right up.”
“Good job everyone,” he said. “If they didn't think we were a threat before, they certainly do now.”
“Score one for our team,” Kelvin said. “Hopefully that's the first of many.”
“Engines are running steady,” Bailey added. “Ryan did a good job of keeping things in working order.”
Shane nodded. “Everyone did a good job.”
He went to end the message, but then a thought popped into his head.
“Simone, what flag are we flying?”
“Our flag, but they're not going to be able to see it in the dark.”
“Turn on the lights around it.”
“Are you sure?”
Shane nodded again. “Yeah, I'm sure. They're out of range, and they can't hit us. Turn the lights on so they can see it.”
“Rubbing it in their face, huh?” Brandon said. Shane thought he heard him chuckle.
“We just fired the opening shots,” he said. “They'll know who we are. And they'll know what we can do.”
Epilogue
The streets of Beylan were buzzing the next day. News spread like wildfire, or maybe like a disease in the eyes of the Iron Guild. There was no covering it up. Many observers had seen the cruiser leaving port, a notable event in and of itself, and yet its attendant fleet returned without it. Several of the ships were damaged as well, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what happened.
Bailey heard quite a few Iron Guild members disputing the rumors, but there was no stopping them now. Everyone knew what had happened, and confirmation would come soon enough. If the guild wanted the replacement money from their insurance policy they'd have to strike the ship from the record, and that was public knowledge.
They might not to try and bury the embarrassing incident, but the important people knew the truth. The Iron Guild knew they had a challenger, and the rest of Rising Tide knew they had a way to fight and sink enemy warships. She imagined their foes would act far more cautiously during the next encounter.
She hurried to the enclosed dockyard, where Jocelyn and Teresa met her outside.
“Nice work,” Jocelyn said as they entered.
“I should say the same thing to you guys. You did most of the heavy lifting when it came to building the things.”
“Yeah, but all the research and development doesn't mean anything if you can't deliver the goods to the right spot. So congratulations on that.”
“I heard you were the one that fired the fatal shots,” Teresa said.
“I was the only one who knew the system,” Bailey shrugged. “It took the whole crew to get us in position for that run.”
“Eh, where's the fun in that? Brag about it a little, say that you killed a cruiser. Put it on your tally, you know?”
She laughed and looked up at the superstructure of their ship. The port side had an ugly gouge across the armor plate.
“Well, that looks a million times worse when it's lit up. All of us thank you, by the way. Without the armor plate I'm not sure we would have made it.”
“You would have found a way.”
“Kind of hard to steer when your bridge is gone.”
“Anyhow, we're going to repair it,” Jocelyn said. “And we'll produce more torpedoes. Hopefully we'll have more destroyers operational within a few weeks.”
“Everyone's scrambling because of you,” Teresa said. “And now everyone wants one of these, even though sailing one outs us as the guild's enemy. They want the power that comes with it.”
Bailey shook her head. “We're not invincible. We used our ship to it's full capabilities, but even then we had to push it. We're going to have to do maintenance on all the engines and boilers. Shane had to redline it for a while to get us through. And the guild is going to learn.”
“So will we. This isn't the final form of the ship. We can upgrade it, make it better, maybe even learn from it and make a new class,” Jocelyn said.
She nodded. So much hard work had gone into the vessel, and yet it was the tip of the iceberg. They had so much more to do.
Bailey stepped forward. “Well, we've got work to do. Ryan's going to stop by later and help us, but let's see what we can get done in the meantime, shall we?”
Applications came flooding in over the next few days. Everyone wanted to join the guild that had made such an impression on the enemy, but Shane remained wary. He remembered the Iron Guild's habit of sending spies into the enemy's midst, and he'd take great pains to keep them at bay. Everyone would be vetted through their web of contacts and spies. It would take a while, but it would give them a bit of a safety net.
And it would also drive away the ones looking to join on a whim, leaving the dedicated and determined. They might have a victory now, but Shane knew they wouldn't win every battle. Their enemy was competent, sly, and they hadn't built their power by being fools. They'd strike back, and they'd strike back hard.
“This is going to be fun,” Kelvin said. “Over three thousand applicants, and we have to look through them all.”
Shane shrugged. “Well, what else do you want to do, open the doors up to guild spies? Or just grab three thousand members just like that?”
“Hey, we'd instantly be one of the biggest guilds,” Kelvin grinned. “But no, I see your point. I just wish there were ways to do this faster.”
“We have time. Our ship needs repairs, we need to rearm, and we're going to need to ge
t more of the ships built before we seriously think about expanding the guild. Not to mention the fact that we have to train people to run the things.”
“That's always the trouble with those things,” a new voice said. “You can't just let anyone take it for a spin.”
Shane glanced over his shoulder and couldn't conceal his grin.
“So, we have intruders,” Kelvin said. “What's your business here.”
“Come to join the guild, if you'll let us.”
Shane saw him glance over. “I don't know, do you think we should vet them first?”
The newcomer laughed. “Ah, we can do it right now. You totally caught us. We're both guild sympathizers and are going to sell you out the first chance we get.”
“I'm surprised you can even say those words. Even if they are sarcastic,” Shane said. He greeted Bryan and Naomi. “So, you want to be part of the guild?”
“That we do,” Naomi said. “It seems like things have changed since we left. And we should be with people that know what's going on to help us along.”
Shane looked at Kelvin. “I think they're OK. What do you think?”
“Yeah I think we're going to kick them out on the curb right after they come back to the game,” he replied.
“Glad to see the more things change, the more they stay the same,” Bryan smiled.
Shane nodded and smiled back. “It's good to have you back. So yes, let's make this official. As guild master I welcome you to the guild. As soon as you head to the hall of records and put your request in I'll approve it. I'm kind of surprised that you haven't done it already.”
“We wanted to ask you in person,” he said. “Didn't want to surprise you.”
“This is still quite the surprise,” Kelvin said.
The smile wouldn't leave Shane's face. They still had a long, hard fight against the Iron Guild, but things already seemed to be changing for the better.
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