Shark-Killer (The Dark Sea War Chronicles Book 3)

by Bruno Martins Soares

  “Load the batteries with clusters, please, Mr Alzira.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Cluster missiles would shorten our range but would hit a wider area, and that was probably better if we didn’t know where the enemy was. Now we just had to know the timing. Figure out where she’d come from.

  Ojoe looked at me. For the first time since it had begun, he took his eyes off the screens and looked at me. He leaned to me and lowered his voice.

  “What do we do, sir?”

  I didn’t have a clue, and my reaction took even me by surprise. I winked at him. I winked in a confident way. As if everything was going according to plan. I don’t know why I did that, but he made a little smile, nodded and relaxed. The others picked it up as well. And suddenly everyone was thinking I knew what I was doing. But I didn’t. I just didn’t. What should we do? And that’s when we had the lucky break.

  “Sir!” Called Bob Junior. Dalto leaned to him and looked at the Libra. Then he looked at me.

  “Sir, there’s a message coming in for the Silent. Coming from… From Axx. From headquarters.”

  I looked at Dalto, holding my breath. Everyone looked at Dalto. We all knew the Silent would have to respond. It was the Addmirallis; she had to respond. And then… And then he said it.

  “She’s responding, sir. Our Silent is responding.”

  “Where?” I asked.

  “8-and-9. Level 3, sir.”

  There she was. There she was. They hadn’t yet figured out that we had the Libra. They were clueless. So they responded and revealed themselves.

  “Sir?” Said Ojoe. I looked at him. They were all looking at me. “Your orders, sir?”

  I raised my eyebrow.

  “No-one moves. No-one moves a muscle. We stay as we are.”

  It took them by surprise. They were completely baffled. They might ask me things. They might ask me what I was trying to do. Or why. But I needed to think. To make my calculations. So I closed my eyes. I closed my eyes and thought to myself. And they all trusted me. And no-one moved.

  *

  «I want to live.»

  *

  Now… I needed to figure out what to do. What would the enemy captain be doing at this moment? He would be thinking we were wounded, or that we didn’t know where they were. But what would we do if that was the case? We would flee. We would try to distance ourselves. If we had all the engines, I would have been doing that already. Okay. Maintain appearances.

  “Mr Steen…” I said, without opening my eyes. “Increase speed again, please. To 90%.”

  “Yes, sir. What heading?”

  “No change, Mr Steen. Just keep going in this direction.”

  It would have been a better lie if we changed direction. But then I wouldn’t be able to predict in any way the course of the enemy. What would he be doing? If he did what he was trained to do, he would be positioning for another torpedo strike. That’s what I’d do, I think. The ship was already back. 8-and-9, right? So he would go further back. As they always did. Contact had been at Level 3. She would be in Level 2 right now. So… The Silent should be about to shoot. I opened my eyes. They were all looking at me.

  “Do we have the clusters, Mr Alzira?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very well. Mr Steen, we’re going to do some crazy stuff, here.”

  He smiled.

  “Ready as you are, sir.”

  I smiled back.

  “On my count, you’ll decrease acceleration to 10% and use the docking thrusters to turn starboard.”

  “Rotation, sir?”

  “Rotation, Mr Steen. 90 degrees.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very well. Here we go. 5… 4…”

  Everyone was holding his or her breaths, again. I hoped the Silent wouldn’t shoot in the next five seconds.

  “3… 2… 1… Zero. Go, Mr Steen.”

  We heard the ship moaning and cracking as Steen decreased speed to 10% and the port thrusters sent us forward, and the starboard thrusters sent us backwards. The Arrabat rotated as a dancer on the dance floor.

  “Fire even, Mr Alzira!”

  “Fire even, yes sir!!”

  Our starboard flank, now turned towards where we came, filled with smoke. And then the explosions. Over a wide area. The whole area to our right was as bright as the sun for a second. And then Dalto.

  “CONTACT! LEVEL 1! 3-AND-1!”

  There she was!

  “Keep rotating, Mr Steen!!” I said. The Arrabat kept rotating as the red circle of the Silent faded from the display. And we rotated, until our port SAF was on her!

  “Fire odds!”

  “Fire odds, yes sir!!”

  And now our port batteries all fired at once, and the cluster missiles exploded again, now to our left.

  “There!” Said Ojoe.

  And there she was. Hit again and again.

  “We have her, sir!” Said Dalto. And he was right. The red circle of the Silent didn’t fade, this time. She was injured and unable to hide. We had her.

  “At her, Mr Steen!” I urged. We were still rotating but now Steen got our speed back to 90%, and we headed straight at the shark. The red circle still didn’t fade. She had tried to escape the clusters, so she had lost her firing position. She was trying to get it back, turn her bow to us, but we didn’t give her the chance.

  “I’ll need the stern torpedo, Mr Alzira.”

  “Yes, sir. Ready, sir.”

  We were getting close. The Silent was now facing us and fired a torpedo. Almost point blank. It was a bluff. Trying to disturb us. They knew it wouldn’t arm and we too knew it wouldn’t arm. It bounced on our bow and went away.

  “Roll to port!”

  “Roll to port, yes sir!”

  “Even batteries, fire at will!”

  “Even batteries, fire at will, yes sir!”

  We went under the Silent and rolled to port so that our starboard batteries managed to fire several sporadic missiles at her belly. We could see she was hurt. She had breaches in several places. Her engines weren’t working properly. We had her.

  We passed under the Silent and went further away. I almost didn’t have to say anything; all my crew knew exactly what we were doing.

  “Please give me a 10 count, Mr Alzira.”

  “Yes, sir. 10… 9… 8…”

  I looked back and watched the red circle gaining distance, getting further and further away.

  “5… 4…”

  She was trying to turn, get into firing position once more, face us directly.

  “2… 1…”

  But she wasn’t going to make it.

  “Zero.”

  “Fire torpedo.”

  “Fire torpedo 3, yes sir.”

  The torpedo jumped out from our stern directly towards the red circle. It took a few seconds to get there. And then it exploded. And the last shark disintegrated in the void of the Dark Sea.

  *

  No other ship, as far as I know, ever defeated five Axxian Silent Boats in the same combat besides the Arrabat. Actually no other ship ever defeated five Silent Boats. Curiously enough, though, despite the fact that several of us got medals for the Arrabat’s mission, her first and last mission, no-one received any medal from that action against the sharks. I consider that day to have probably been my finest hour in the Dark Sea War, but still, it was one day that the Navy ignored.

  I think this happened for two reasons.

  First, we didn’t do anything significant that day as far as the war was concerned. We were simply fighting for survival. For ourselves. There weren’t really any heroics there. So it would have been considered normal combat play. Fine by me. I got to survive. Many of my men got to survive. And that was enough for me.

  But there was a second reason. I think that, for a long time, most people didn’t really believe the story. No-one was ready to believe we had done that. It simply seemed impossible. Of course, we did have an advantage that day, with the Libra machine. And we ended up facing
five sharks because they all came at us together. There was never again an occasion where that would happen, especially after we had crippled the operational range of the Silent Boats in the Dark Sea, making it very difficult to organise ‘shark attacks’ from then on. And no other nation ever used teams of Silent Boats in consistent tactics again.

  We were only vindicated many years after the war when the records of the Styllemarinne were unsealed and revealed what happened that day. That last communication from the last shark had told the Addmiralis that four ships were already down. That proved our accounts of the event. Another incredible feat was done by the Arrabat in her short history.

  On that day, something else happened. My nickname was changed. My nickname Scar was discarded with the same ease as it had been awarded. From then on, my crew gave me another nickname that would stick for a long time: Shark-Killer. Byl Shark-Killer Iddo. Many would use it ironically, never believing our stories, but I heard it always with a sense of honour. Thank you, my good men. You were the best of crews.

  EPISODE 10 - WRECK

  “Our turn.” I said to Jilton. He nodded, released his seat belt and got up. I knew without anyone telling me that the Arrabat was a wreck. We had taken so much punishment that the damage must have been extensive. I looked around. Mira was taking care of Bob Xavier. My team was checking all systems. I grabbed Erbay’s arm.

  “Kary, you’re H5’s captain. You need to go to your people, check everyone from the marines and commandos to the sailors. The batteries’ firing teams had to be rescued. You need to pull everyone together, now, don’t leave it to your lieutenant.”

  “Okay, Byl.” He nodded.

  “Better take Major Wilard and the Bobs with you. Hekk will take Xavier to the medics.”

  “Okay.”

  They left and I turned to Ojoe.

  “Man the bridge.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Then I turned to Mirany.

  “You’re okay?” When she nodded affirmatively, I said: “Then come with me. Mr Jilton, let’s go.”

  *

  “Well?”

  “We’re in bad shape, sir.”

  “How bad?”

  I knew we were in bad shape, but I wasn’t prepared for what Jilton said. We were looking at the hologram of the ship in the office of the captain in H1. Mira was there beside me, as was Forter, the H1 captain. We were all looking at Jilton frowning and then answering:

  “Well, sir… Hulls 2, 3, 4 and 5 are closed down. As is the main corridor. H6 is isolated and we are unable to communicate with them.”

  “No comms?”

  “No comms, sir. H4 is fighting a major fire. Last I know, they were close to contain it, but it’s not looking good overall. They have no gravity and power is failing. H5 was evacuated, as far as we know. It’s not responding to comms, but we knew the battery crews were being pulled out by H6, let’s hope they made it.”

  “H3?”

  “All the crew left managed to take refuge in a few closed compartments. They have no general power, just three portable generators. Their gravity is irregular.”

  “How about H2?”

  He frowned again.

  “Worrisome. No gravity. They also suspect an O2 leak. H2 worries me because they’re not really sure of anything. They’re trying hard to check everything out, but if something goes down, it’ll be sudden. The only Hull we have control over is this one, sir. Even the tower is wrecked, as you know. Only 30% of it is accessible.”

  I looked at Forter.

  “And how’s H1?”

  He twisted his nose.

  “Pretty beaten down, sir, but we’ll hold. We’re reinforcing the outer hull in one of the storage rooms before it breaches, but the room itself is isolated. We also have problems in the O2 supply, but nothing major. We were lucky, sir.”

  “Good.”

  I nodded and looked back at Jilton.

  “And the engines?”

  “Last we know, the starboard one was back at 40%. That’s before the H6 comms went down. The port one was good, but now we don’t have anyone at H5, so we can only guess. They could go out at any second as far as we know.”

  “Exterior comms?”

  “No way, sir. All major antennas are down. Not for a while, anyhow.”

  I scratched my neck. This was a mess. A real mess. The Arrabat was a piece of garbage wondering in Space.

  “How about casualties?” Asked Mirany. “Casualties and medical supplies?”

  Jilton looked at me, wondering if he should answer her or wait for my orders, but he knew for the look on my face he’d better answer her. I was a good warrior. But Mira was far better at getting things into shape.

  “Well, ma’am…”

  “Captain Cavo is a full captain, Mr Jilton.” I said.

  “Yes, sir.” He looked at her and rephrased. “Well, Captain, we don’t have a full count yet, but we’re looking at five to six-hundred dead and wounded at least.”

  I swallowed hard. These were a lot of people. Mira didn’t flinch: she probably had figured that out already.

  “How many wounded, Mr Jilton?” She said. “We need to know that immediately. There’s no gravity in H5, H4, H2 and probably H3. We don’t know about H6. That means the only operational medical facilities are probably the ones in H1. We need to start prioritising and figuring out what to do with the wounded, or casualties are going to increase exponentially.”

  “Yes, ma… Captain.” He looked at me.

  I nodded.

  “She’s right, Mr Jilton. Let the hulls take care of themselves for now, as they’re trained to do. Let’s make sure H1 is as secured as it can be, and press H4 to reestablish contact with H6. I know they have their hands full, but we need to know about the engines ASAP.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’m going to the bridge to figure out navigation. Captain Cavo will help you figure out the casualty problem.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Let’s move.”

  I looked at Mirany one last time before I got out of there. She looked at me. There was something about her, something different than a day before. A sparkle, maybe. Something. She nodded, releasing me from any worry about leaving her there, and I left. I actually wasn’t worried. I was hopeful. For a second, I thought I’d seen the old Mirany there. My old Captain. I smiled to myself and went to take care of my ship.

  *

  «I want to live.»

  *

  “The Captain has the bridge.”

  “Any further contacts, Mr Dalto?”

  “No, sir.”

  “We’ve kicked their asses!” Said Alzira.

  I smiled and took Ojoe by the arm to the Navigation seat where Steen was waiting for us. We looked at the small navigation map.

  “So this is the deal.” I started. “We may be losing one or both main engines, so we need to figure out where we should head the ship before they go down.”

  Ojoe nodded and pointed at the map.

  “Well, sir, we’ve come far enough to clear the Raven planet. If we continue as we are, we should cross the Mirox in a few days.”

  “Mr Steen?” I asked. Steen raised his shoulders.

  “Whatever you say, sir.”

  I sighed.

  “We’re in trouble. We’re not combat-ready, nor will we be in the near future. Our plan was a good one, and our course was a good one. But now… I just want to get beyond the Mirox as soon as possible. How long would it take us if we go head straight to the borderline?”

  Steen made the calculations.

  “If the engines hold? I guess four to five days, sir.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “At this speed? Using the thrusters to make small corrections, maybe push us here and there? Seven to eight days.”

  “Very well. Do it. Change course.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  *

  From then on, I was counting the days. We were all counting the days. Four or five hulls locked do
wn were more than we could afford. I knew that. We all knew that. So problems would have to be solved very quickly. I figured we, the officers and crew, wouldn’t have much sleep until we got to the Mirox. Boy… Was I wrong…

  *

  DAY 1

  When I got back to the HQ in H1, Mira was taking charge, in that smooth calm way she had, seating behind the desk with four or five people around her, completing different tasks, including Jilton and Ghish, the L-Comm, Sandro’s replacement.

  “…and that has to be done in the next 10 minutes or so.” She was saying to Jilton.

  “Yes, Captain. You’re right. I’ll take care of it.” Jilton gave me a two-finger salute and off he went. I approached the desk. It was much more organised than I had left it a few minutes ago.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yes.” She barely looked up. “Look. These are the red problems, and these are the yellow problems. Very few greens, right now. We need to step up.”

  I smiled. That’s my girl.

  “What do you need?”

  “Let’s focus on the red problems. The fire is still not out in H4. Don’t really know what’s happening, Mr Jilton went to find out.”

  “Okay.”

  “H3 is another problem. It’s losing power. We have 62 people there surviving on portable heaters. We need to figure out a way to get them out of there ASAP before they freeze to death.”

  “So what do we do?”

  She turned to Ghish.

  “I need a suit count before we decide. How are we on that, Mr Ghish?”

  Ghish was shy. Even more than Sandro. Not what you usually see in Logistics, by the way.

  “Well, I just…” He started. “We have 10 ODA suits in Hull 1. We had 12, but Mr Jilton and his man took two to H4. H3 has three more available. 13 in total, Captain.”

  Mira thought for a bit and then leaned back, worried. She looked at me.

  “We have two ways of doing this, Mr Iddo.” I remembered how she’d call me Mr Iddo on the Harvy. I smiled. She didn’t notice. That’s where she was different. “Either we get our 10 suits to H3, and go back and forth until they’re all out… or…”

  “Or?”