434 The Iron Kingdom (1/2)
The heavy whop whop whop of the spinning aerial screw gently pushed the sleek airship through the air, joining the formation of four other similar ships. The airships kept to a flying 'V' formation as they closed towards the edge of the border.
The airships had a shape similar to a Terran swordfish and in place of it's 'tail', where three spiral shaped aerial screws were placed two side by side and one below. The 'nose' of the airship was the bowsprit which was linked to 'fins' or sails on both its side and top.
Their hulls that glittered in the sun was plated with riveted plates of iron where tears of rust could be seen at areas where the paint had peeled off. At their rear dangled a dark blue flag with a simple motif of a clenched iron fist, telling people this was a ship of the Iron Kingdom. The entire ship was enclosed, without any open decks except for several open air walkways linked with hatches.
Dozens of circular viewports covered the majority of its hull, allowing the crew inside to see out. The bridge sat in the front, just below the bowsprit, with large crystal window panels to provide enough view for the helm man and crew to pilot the ship.
Along its curved body, were two rows of rectangular gunports for their steam cannons that were covered up currently. The Vise class air frigates of the Iron Kingdoms carried a total of twenty two five stoner steam cannon. The strength of the steam cannons was measured by the weight of their projectiles fired, which a five stoner steam cannon can fire up to a five stone shot, which equals to a 2.5 kg projectile in Terran measurements.
Nine steam cannons sat on facing each side of the ship, arranged with four on the upper cannon deck and five on the lower deck. The upper deck gun ports allowed the steam cannons to adjust their firing angles upwards to engage ships of higher altitude while the lower deck allowed their steam cannons' angles to be adjusted downwards, allowing ground bombardment.
At the fore and aft of the ship, sat a pair of chase guns each, allowing the airship to attempt to slow down an enemy ship either chasing or being chased when the ship's broadside could not be brought to bear.
”Is this some sort of wild wyvern chase?” Lancaster frowned as he complained to his friend, whose eyes were glued to the looking glass. ”Why would a Protectorate ship play pirate out here? Could it be those villagers have reported wrongly and now we are stuck out here in the cold doing nothing useful?”
His friend, Grace, remained silent and did not even bother to reply kept her attention beyond the crystal windows. Both of them had just turned sixteen and were working on their apprenticeship onboard the Iron Maiden, a Vise class frigate, as midshipman which was the lowest of the lowest rank of officers.
Their duties generally involved cleaning the officer decks, serving the flag officers, and standing watch over the bell and wind up clock and performing spotting duties like now. Lancaster sighed at the cold shoulder given by Grace and took up his looking glass and casually looked around the coastline.
Spotting work was generally boring, just looking out at the endless empty blue skies or clouds and seeing nothing. And they had to do the same thing for hours, just staring out into nothingness! Not only that, but the spotting nest was also sited at the front top of the ship's hull, in an open air tower.
They both had to dress thickly due to the cold strong winds and sometimes they even had to put on a leather breathing mask as the air could get very thin the higher the ship was at. Luckily, this time around, the fleet was kept at a relatively low altitude.
He lethargically fiddled around with his looking glass, swiping left and right and he froze and jerked back his looking glass as he unexpectedly caught sight of something. He focused his looking glass and yelled excitedly, ”Grace! Grace! Look there! Is that a Protectorate ship?”
Grace frowned at the excited cries and motions of Lancaster and sighed inwardly, wondering why is he still so immature even after gaining adulthood. She followed Lancaster's excited directions and saw what he was excited about.
The sight of the blood red vessel was unmistakable, even if the view from the looking glass was not all that clear due to the distance and clouds. The blood red hull of the Protectorate ship strikingly stood out against the white and blue skies.
Grace felt a tingle of fear down her spine while Lancaster excitedly hopped around in the cramped spotting tower. ”Aedi's fire! It really is a Protectorate ship! This is so exciting!”
Grace ignored Lancaster's excitement and she flipped the cover off the speaking horn. She covered the sides of the horn and cleared her throat before she reported the sighting to the officer below.
”Protectorate ship sighted!” She paused as she checked the compass chart glued around the circular railings of the spotting tower. ”Compass point... three two zero! Heading on an eastern direction!”
”You sure up there?”
”YES!” Grace yelled back.
”Wait there!”
Grace covered the speaking horn and Lancaster who was still fantasizing of the coming battle asked. ”Do you think we will board and capture the Protectorate ship? How many do you think we can kill?”
Lancaster did not wait for Grace's reply and he continued on, his eyes glowing with excitement. ”I can't wait to tell the rest of our class that we encountered a Protectorate ship! We will be heroes!”
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The Commodore of the Iron Maiden frowned when a crew member handed a message slip to him. He read the message and his eyed narrowed before he looked up and started issuing orders. ”Order the fleet to change course and prepare for battle!”
”The Protectorate ship has been spotted!” The Commodoregrinned in anticipation. ”Order the fleet to switch to intercept formation!”
The Iron Maiden was the flagship of the 149th Squadron and once the orders were given, signal flags were flown out and signal lights started flashing between the ships. One by one the airships of the 149th Squadron responded as they replied back with flags and signals.