562 Duty (1/2)
He checked his men condition as he walked down to the front of the landing craft and climbed up the flight of steps that led up to the observation tower, where a goblin swinging his feet happily sat on a tall stool manning the twin linked .50 caliber machine gun. Mills ignored the spray of seawater and instead focused on the other three landing craft that was paralleling the one he was riding on.
Seeing the other three ships pushing across the ocean gave him an oddly satisfying feeling of pride and power. Sail rigged merchant ships of the Isles avoided their approach and even the few coastal patrol ships made way for them. He glanced back to the rear of the open deck of the landing cargo, pass the curled up spider tank.
A dark olive painted container box sat at the very rear on the flat bed of a transport truck. He knew who was inside and in fact almost everyone knew despite the contents were supposed to be top secret. Mills smiled to himself as he wondered how the Council of the Isles will respond if they knew who was coming back.
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The Sea Shadow
Another island was left ablaze behind the retreating shadow of Fleet Master Megan's Sea Shadow. It was the third island hit by the Sea Shadow in two days, and now her underworld ship was headed to rendezvous with a hidden resupply ship.
The crew and even Megan were thrilled by their success and evasion of the Cartel's desperate patrols. So far, her forces had targeted the Cartel's flying ships servicing towers within the region which will implement the Cartel's resupply and logistic efforts. While the Cartel's flying ships could restock and repair without the service towers, it would take more time and effort to move supplies onboard compared to having dedicated service towers.
It took the Sea Shadow two turns of the sand glass before the ship arrived at the rendezvous location where two sail rigged ships were hidden in a deep water cove of a tiny island. The Sea Shadow started to dump its ballast tanks, pumping in air into the tanks and the underwater ship slowly rose to the surface.
Once it was floating on the surface, the two waiting ships started lowering long boats filled with supplies and rowed over to the Sea Shadow. The crew worked hurriedly as they knew the longer they remained on the ocean surface, the higher the chance of getting spotted by a Cartel flying ship.
She smiled as she saw what she was waiting for, the news of the United Nation's super ship appeared at the First City of the Fleet and also the reports of a massive Cartel fleet forming up at one of the Eastern Islands. Now, all her chess pieces were in place and now all she has to do is wait for the Cartel to launch a full scale attack on the First City and her hidden fleet will move out to reclaim those islands lost to the Cartel in one fell swoop!
Quickly, she drafted her orders out and handed them over to the two supply ships whose captains further transferred the orders to waiting courier dragons that hopped off into the air to deliver them at the fast speed possible to her hidden fleet.
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UNS Vengeance, Bridge
”Unknown Contacts!” The radar operator at his station suddenly yelled out. ”Bearing zero five zero! West bound!”
The XO of the Vengeance, standing in on duty at the bridge when Captain Nimo and Fleet Commander Ford was away attending some diplomatic mission at the Isles' First City of the Fleet, quickly stepped over to the sensor station. He leaned over the shoulder of the radar operator and frowned as he peered at the screen showing the blinking blimps appearing at the very edge of their sensors.
”Direct AWACS and a patrol flight over to see if they can ID the contacts!” The XO ordered. ”Put all aircraft on standby! Bring the ship to orange alert! And inform the Cap and Commander!”
A circling FB - 1S recon aircraft was redirected from its patrol route within seconds along with four F/A - 2 Vipers that were up in the air on patrol. The Vipers kept back while the FB - 1S recon plane took point high above in the clouds and swept the incoming unknown contacts with beams of its powerful radar.
Soon information started to flow back to the bridge and Combat Information Center of the Vengeance. Confirmation of sightings of nineteen airships on a direct approach to the Isles' First City was relayed to Captain Nimo and Commander Ford via radio.
Both senior officers were grim faced as they were seated down in a conference room of the UN Embassy in the Isles's First City of Fleet listening to the report. The radio operator had the handset on loudspeaker and the room was warded by magic to prevent any magical spying.
”Nineteen Cartel airships,” Commander Ford frowned. ”Seems like a full invasion force...”
”Intel has pegged the Cartel's total air fleet at forty one ships,” Captain Nimo said. ”Fourteen had left the New World over a month ago, leaving behind twenty seven ships.”
”They must have left eight ships behind to guard their outposts while the rest got deployed...” Commander Ford pointed out. ”Megan must have kicked the hornet's nest hard for them to deploy two thirds of their remaining air fleet!”
”And just nice, we are here...” Captain Nimo said. ”She must have timed the attack to take place when we are here...”
”Yes,” Commander Ford nodded. ”She is taking such a risk... If we did not plan to make our way here...”
”The First City would have nothing to stop the Cartel from razing their city down...” Commander Ford said. ”What a crazy plan...”
”Do we deploy our forces?” Captain Nimo frowned. ”I don't really feel like doing so...”
Commander Ford sighed as he gestured out of the window to the city. ”We can't ignore the people here... They have nothing to stop an aerial attack...”
”Damn...” Captain Nimo cursed. ”I really want to have Megan's plans fail...”