by Saxon Andrew
Andy nodded, “Can we do that and keep our schedule?” Zeck nodded. “Make it happen, Admiral.” Zeck nodded again and moved the ship clear of the fleet’s main body and moved out in front of the armada. The other ships went to their full sails and the fleet quickly moved out to sea headed east toward the Destroyer City following in the wake of the Storm Chaser.
• • •
Rory arrived below decks and went to his command team, “There’s been a change of plans.”
Johnathan stood up, “It’s a little late to be doing that!”
“Andy is of the opinion that we missed something at the harbor cannons.”
Mindy tilted her head, “John, didn’t you take a good look at them?”
John looked at Mindy and thought for a few minutes as he remembered his flight over the harbor. Rory watched his expression and said, “What are you thinking?”
“Rory, I flew over the harbor and looked at the harbor batteries from inside the harbor. I didn’t fly over them to see if there were anything on the other sides of the cliffs they were on.”
Rory shook his head, “I would imagine that if there was anything of importance, it would be on the harbor side of the cliffs.” Mindy sniffed and Rory said, “What?”
“Where are our forces on our own cliffs?”
“What are you saying?”
“Rory, the rooms that houses the relief forces for our cannons are on the front of the cliff so they can see out over the sea in the event an enemy is approaching our shores. Where on the harbor cliffs is the view of the open sea?”
Rory stared at her and tilted his head, “That would be the wall away from the harbor.”
“And if they have relief forces in rooms cut out in those cliffs…”
“Our plan will fail.”
Johnathan nodded, “I suspect we only need to go and look at one of them. If there’s a problem with one, the other is probably the same way.”
Rory nodded and looked at Mindy, “How much time have you spent on the powered gliders?”
“Enough.”
“Answer the question, Mindy!”
“About twenty days.”
Rory’s head went back, “Just when did you do that?”
“Gordon and I went up in them quite a few times while you were on the scouting trip. I personally don’t like them very much but they are what you have to have to fly against the wind.”
Johnathan shook his head, “Why don’t one of us go and check it out?”
“John, she’s more than a hundred fifty pounds lighter than me and at least fifty pounds lighter than you.”
Mindy said under her breath, “More like seventy five pounds.” Johnathan heard her but didn’t respond to her quip. He knew he weighed two hundred pounds and Mindy had to be less than a hundred and twenty five pounds. Rory looked at them and said, “The Admiral wants to send a scout three days before our fleet arrives at the picket ships to take a look. The scout will then turn around and use the electric motors to meet the fleet.”
“Will it have enough of a charge to get back?”
Rory nodded, “As long as the flyer’s weight is low, two sets of batteries can be installed on the glider. The scout will arrive, take a look, and then turn around and head back toward the fleet. At that point, the fleet will be sailing with the wind and should only be two days from the scout. The scout will arrive at the fleet when it’s still a day out from the Picket Ships.” Rory looked at Mindy, “Do you want to do this?”
Mindy smiled, “It’s really not a question of what I want. I’m best suited to do it. I’ve determined with my weight that a battery will last more than sixteen hours. It would only last twelve with Gordon. I could cover sixty more miles than Gordon with one battery.”
Johnathan sat down, “Two batteries should get her back.”
Rory nodded and looked at Mindy, “You’ll take off from the bow launch floor into the wind. It won’t be as high as the prevailing easterly wind but you can use it to get enough height to move up into the air stream.”
“How do I find the harbor?”
Rory sighed, “I’ll talk to Zeck about that. He’ll give you a magnetic pointer and the proper course to hold.” Mindy nodded and sighed. Rory’s eyes narrowed, “Now what?”
“I was planning to really eat my fill on this trip. It looks like I’ll have to watch my diet.”
“I didn’t know you were on a diet.”
“Every woman is on a diet; how do you think I’ve been able to keep my shape?”
Rory shook his head and sat down. Tamara was always complaining about watching what she ate, as well. Truth be told, he had to watch it too. Many of the older flyers still called him Fats. Mindy moved above decks and sat down on the flat floor that had been built at the bow of the ship. It was level with the rails and offered a much larger space to launch, or land, a glider. She looked out at the waves moving toward the ship and wondered what Gordon was doing.
• • •
The Destroyer Commander was back at the home where the two slaves disappeared. The Master was with him as he inspected the two slave quarters again, “What are you looking for?”
“Something that would have allowed one of the slaves to get out.”
The Master shook his head, “Then you need to focus on Gren’s room.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because if Olivia managed to get out, she would have never opened Gren’s door. She detested him and he had threatened to do some pretty horrific things to her if he ever got his hands on her.”
The Commander nodded and moved to the room on the left. He pushed on every square inch of the room and nothing budged. He shook his head and put his hand under his nose, “This room stinks!”
“I know. I’ve had it cleaned four times and it still isn’t right.”
The Commander looked at the Master, “Did it always smell like this?”
“I don’t know how long it’s smelled so bad. I usually unlock the door and move back. I think he had been stealing some of the orange pods and hiding them in his clothes.”
“Why do you think that?”
“When your warriors first inspected the room there was an orange powder on the walls and floor. The smell is probably coming from the rotting orange pods we’ve been harvesting.”
“Can you show me some of the powder?”
“No, I’ve had the room washed out several times and the residue is no longer inside.”
The Commander nodded slowly and walked over and picked one of the orange pods growing in a close row of plants. He smelled it and it didn’t smell bad, “Do you mind if I take this?”
“No, feel free to take as many as you want.”
The Commander picked four more and put them in a pouch. “Thank you for your time.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The Commander took the pouch and tied it to his belt. He threw it outside his house when he arrived home and then left for the Government Building. He promptly forgot about it as he ran into a problem with the new spitter guns. It was twelve hours later when he arrived back home; he ate his evening meal and went directly to sleep. No one noticed the pouch that had landed under a bush in his back yard.
• • •
Mindy saw land on the horizon before the sun appeared. The lanterns running along the shore seemed to grow each moment she flew east. She turned into the easterly wind and used it to spiral higher. She kept her eyes on the horizon and the lights from the Destroyer City grew in number and intensity.
She shook her head at the size of the city and looked to the south. She could see the huge indentation into the shoreline where the harbor was located and she saw the second row of picket ships below as she flew over them. The view was incredibly beautiful in spite of the evil represented by the civilization she was seeing. She adjusted her course slightly and began flying toward the southern edge of the huge harbor. That is where the big cannons were located. She took her time moving in. She circled a number of times an
d waited for the sun to start making an appearance. She turned and moved quickly toward the cliff as the first light on the distant horizon began to appear. She came flying in over the southern battery of cannons just before daylight broke and dove to get a good look at the huge cannons. She turned back into the wind as she passed over them and she saw the cannons were larger than she imagined. There were ten of them lined up pointing their barrels out to sea and every one of them were more than double the size of the cannons carried on the ships. She noticed the Destroyers surrounding the guns began stirring and it surprised her that there were only ten Destroyer Warriors on the top of the cliff. That was nowhere near the number needed to fire the cannons. She continued to circle above the cannons as daybreak lit up the harbor.
She thought the battery was located on the same cliff that ran along the harbor shore but she saw she was wrong in the brightening daylight. The southern battery was actually located on an island several miles out to sea. The island appeared to be little more than the top of a huge rock that jutted out of the ocean. It was about a mile in length and the top of the rock was about as tall as the cliff that ran along the shore to the north. The harbor had sandy beaches running around its shoreline and it was clear that was the easiest way to land a ship. Outside the harbor the land rose quickly into a long ragged cliff that extended north.
She squinted but couldn’t really see any details of the harbor’s beaches, so she spiraled upward and turned toward the shore. In ten minutes she began to see gun emplacements that ran along the shore. She shook her head at the hundreds of cannons on the sand dunes that ran along the beach. She turned north toward the cliff that started on the northern edge of the harbor and saw the barrels of the huge cannons on top of it. She had little doubt those cannons could fire all the way across the harbor to the south and hit the island the battery was located. The northern battery was almost under those cannons. Getting a ship into that harbor was going to be a nightmare. Matter of fact, getting a ship anywhere near the harbor was an exercise in futility with those two harbor batteries covering the approaches.
She flew out over the cliff and dove toward the island with the northern cannons. She moved quickly in the wind as she quartered against it and moved out to the seaside of the cannons. She picked up speed as the sun moved over the horizon and looked at the rock face of the island as she flew about two hundred yards out to sea from it. Her heart went into her throat. The rock wall facing out to sea had numerous square openings cut into it and she saw many of them had the four-barrel spitter guns sticking out of them. There had to be hundreds of Destroyers in those rocks manning the spitters and ready to move on top of the island to fire the heavy cannons. She climbed higher and moved across the harbor toward the southern island. She arrived at it and passed on the seaside; it was just as bad as the northern battery. She shook her head and knew just taking out the crew manning the guns wouldn’t work. They would be replaced and the defenses would be alerted and firing as soon as they attacked. She thought for a moment and rose high above the island. She looked down on the cannons from directly above and stared at the rocks. She didn’t see anything so she circled around and looked again.
It took four circles before she found them. There was a cover the same color as the rocks over fifteen bumps. She could tell from the size of the things under the cover that they were probably more of the spitters. Once the defenses were alerted, every approach to the island would be covered. She turned away from the island and flew higher into the prevailing easterly wind. Once she was a mile above the ocean she activated the electric prop and started flying west. This mission was a suicide mission. She shook her head and wondered how much more Rory and Johnathan had missed on their scouting voyage. The attack might just have to be called off.
“What’s bothering you, Warrior!?”
The Destroyer Warrior jerked and nearly dropped his rifle, “You nearly scared me off the cliff, Sire!”
“You should pay more attention to your surroundings! Now why are you staring out at the ocean with that frown?”
The Warrior shook his head and said, “There is a shadow moving over the water that doesn’t look right.”
The Destroyer Leader looked out at the harbor and said, “Where?”
“I can’t see it any more but it moved from the south to the north and I saw it again when it moved back south.” The Leader knew that with the sun being just over the horizon that if a shadow was being cast on the water it had to be much closer to land. He looked back to the east and saw the Pterodactyls were already flying high above the inland forest. The warrior saw him looking east and said, “Those reptiles are flying in packs. I saw a single shadow moving alone on the water.”
The Leader looked out at the harbor and knew the Commandant suspected the new enemy might be able to fly some kind of aircraft. He looked at the warrior and said, “Do you think you could have seen the object that made the shadow?”
The Warrior shrugged, “Sire, I’ve been watching these waters for years and I’m pretty good and finding anything that casts a shadow. I didn’t see anything in the air that could have cast the shadow I was seeing.”
The Leader nodded and glanced out at the harbor and saw a shadow moving quickly over the water. The two of them turned simultaneously and saw a Pterodactyl that had launched from a tree was flying quickly along the tree line beyond the harbor’s shore. “Did it look like that, Warrior?”
The warrior thought for a long moment and said, “I guess. It wasn’t shaped the same but it was moving similar to that.”
The Leader blew out a breath, “I suspect that with the early sun, you saw one of the lizard birds trying to fly up to join those already above it.”
“Sire, it just didn’t look right to me.”
“Well call me if you see it again.”
“Yes Sire.”
The Leader moved along the wall and inspected the other warriors manning the defenses. He wondered if he should report the sighting but knew if he did that the new Commander and the Commandant would question him. He didn’t have a good answer for what his Warrior had seen and he wasn’t going to risk that inquisition without more information. The Commandant’s anger was legendary and he wasn’t going to risk it. The Destroyers missed the opportunity to get all of their defenders raised to a higher level of alert. The Community’s luck had held out so far. Could it continue?
• • •
Striker sailed the small squadron of ships toward the south. He had arrived more than eighty miles north of the Destroyer city and had begun his approach close to shore. The six ships were completely covered in the camouflage material and were difficult, if not impossible to see. The ships carried no cannons, gunpowder, or other heavy ordinance that a normal ship of war would have on board.
It was prepared for speed and it had made the crossing in record time. He knew he was more than ten days ahead of the fleet and he sailed the squadron slowly. He had fliers over the land ahead of their approach and they were ordered to fire on anything that looked like a destroyer scout. So far, none had been seen. That wouldn’t continue much longer. He knew he would run into the pickets about twenty five miles out from the city. He was going to have to take the one stationed close to shore out without being seen. However, that would happen after the first wave of fliers was launched. It was crowded below decks. Each of the six ships had more than three hundred and fifty fliers on board. That was a hundred more than the ship was designed to carry. Removing everything from the armory increased the space, but it was crowed. More than eighty of the fliers had to be on the main deck at any one time to allow the others room below.
Striker peered into the darkness and saw Tyler approaching. Tyler smiled and said, “Do you need a break?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Do you mind if I sit here with you?”
“Pull up a stool and sit down.”
Tyler pulled up a small stool from the rail and sat down. He looked at the shoreline two miles away and sighed
, “Do you think they can see us out here?”
“Not really. Our speed isn’t fast enough to cause a large wake in our passage. I don’t think we’ll encounter a problem until we get much closer.”
“How could anyone move south fast enough to issue a warning if they did see us?”
“If there’s a scout on shore that spots us, he’ll launch a large red rocket. It will go high enough to be seen by any scout south of here. They’ll in turn launch another rocket until the picket ships see it. They’ll pass the warning on to the city and then come looking for us.”
“Would they pose a danger?”
“We didn’t bring any cannons.” Tyler stared at Striker and took a deep breath. Striker smiled, “I don’t think we’ll be seen.” He paused and said without looking at Tyler, “I hope you know how I feel about you taking Olivia back into that city.”
Tyler shook his head, “Striker, you can’t feel half as bad as I do doing it.”
Striker looked at Tyler, “Then why are you taking her?”
“We’re going to try and save the babies and infants from being killed. What do you think she would feel if I refused to do that?” Striker looked back out to sea and remained silent. Tyler shook his head, “She would lose the feelings she has for me if I didn’t try. She would wonder just how hard my heart was every time we had an issue in the future. She would wonder about my love for my own children. And, the truth be told, she’d be right to do so.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re going to be there and if we don’t make the effort…”
“You’d be no better than those you’re attacking.”
“Exactly. If we weren’t going in, then we could be excused. I happen to agree with her, Striker. Even if I die in the effort, it’s worth doing.”
“Your father would be proud of you, Tyler.”
“Are you proud of me, Striker? I know how much Zeck admires you.”
“I am.”
“That means more than you know. It’s important that you understand why I’m doing this.”