“We still can’t do anything about them,” the captain sighed.
“No, we can’t, sir,” the gunny replied as a ballista from one of the frigates whistled overhead towards the archers. The archers were in the process of changing over firers but most of them easily avoided the incoming ballista bolt. “But that don’t mean they won’t be done with.”
“Dragons!” the lookout called. “Off the starboard bow!”
That was due east and into the still rising sun, but the admiral could barely make out the forms of dragons against the blaze.
“Ours?” Captain Lohnes asked, puzzled.
“No, I think not.” The admiral sighed. “There’s a carrier out there somewhere. Probably three. Damn that Talbot.”
“What should we do, sir?” Fleet Captain Bouviet asked.
“Have the boats return for the second wave of Changed,” the admiral said.
“Sir, with respect,” Captain Lohnes replied. “I’m not sure I can effect repairs. We’ve lost more than half our dragons and the Changed are trying to land in the teeth of both bowmen and Blood Lords, not to mention their own dragons. And there’s an unknown number of carriers after us while we’re effectively locked in place. We should withdraw.”
“The last admiral that tried to explain that sort of thing to Marshal Chansa is somewhere over there,” the admiral replied, waving at the beach where the Changed were being slaughtered. “I choose not to withdraw.”
“Age and treachery are wonderful things, sir,” Gunny Rutherford said as the flight of dragons swept overhead and headed for the New Destiny task force. The anti-dragon frigate was to the west of the aircraft carrier so the dragons had to actually pass over the latter to reach their target. When they did the entire flight lined up and carefully passed over the frigate, dropping load after load of napalm onto its deck. Since they were dropping from out of range of the ballistas, many of the pots missed. But, then again, many of them hit. And not all the foam in the world could save a wooden ship from a deck covered in napalm. After they had dropped their loads they began landing at the base by the warehouses the “workmen” had been using.
“Don’t tell me,” the captain said. “Some of the workmen’s ‘solvents’ are…”
“Reloads for the dragons, sir,” the gunny replied with a nod. He pulled back the hood of his fire suit and lit a stogie on his still smoldering shield. “And more archers over there to cover them while they rearm. It’s harder for them to take off and they can only carry two bombs. But they can recycle much faster. And we’ve got about three times the load of bombs a carrier can handle. And, of course, we don’t sink if they get through.”
“Was this the duke’s plan from the beginning?” Captain Pherson asked, pulling back his own hood. One of the carriers appeared to be low in the water and was definitely showing signs of having a hard time turning its dragons around. The other was beginning to launch but even as the dragons staggered into the air, small, highly colored dragons dropped out of the sun onto them, firing darts that flashed silver in the sun. More dragons fell into the sea.
“Just a contingency plan, sir,” the gunny said, taking a puff off of his stogie. “Just a contingency.”
“Losing Hazhir has played merry hob with Stonewall,” Talbot said. “It was only a contingency plan to start with. And now we’re going to be playing catch-up to make our next rendezvous. Furthermore, we have to destroy the fleet here, since otherwise the dreadnoughts are going to run into heavy weather.”
“Dreadnoughts?” Shar asked.
“I’m sending them down to pick up D’Erle and his men,” Edmund said. “They’re on their way, as a matter of fact. As soon as the Changed boats are patched up D’Erle and his men will prepare to embark. The dreadnoughts should be here by then. But instead of Hazhir screening them while we go take on the other task force, they’ll have to run up the coast without any coverage, except some Silverdrake we’ll fly off to them. Then we’re going to have to head for the remnants of the combat fleet and finish them off.”
Admiral Arris stepped into the launch as the water rose over the bulwarks of the Wilhelm.
“Head for the Tressam,” he said, watching the battle on the shore. The Changed were dropping out of the launches in the shallows, which were scarlet with blood, and charging up the beach to the line of waiting Blood Lords. There had been one attempt to change the landing area but there was really only one place to land and the Blood Lords and archers had it covered. As he watched most of the Changed fell in the shallows to a mass flight of arrows. The last few charged the Blood Lords but were cut down with hardly a dent in the Blood Lord lines. As soon as the charge was broken the Blood Lords conducted a well-drilled movement that brought new fighters to the front lines to rest those that had been handling the bulk of the fighting.
“Admiral,” Fleet Captain Bouviet said, pointing towards the harbor. A flight of dragons had formed up and now vectored towards the fleet, heading for the Tressam.
The Tressam managed to get some dragons upÑthe small, fast wyverns had disappeared for the momentÑand they tried to engage the oncoming flight of UFS wyverns. Some of the UFS beasts were, apparently, unladen and they turned to cut off the New Destiny dragons. There was a brief midair battle which had riders falling off into the water and a few dragons, he couldn’t tell whose, following them down. But the main flight made it through and napalm rained all over his last carrier.
“Change directions,” the admiral said. “Head for the nearest frigate. We’re going to have to withdraw.”
The UFS dragons, however, turned to the north.
“Are they withdrawing, too?” the Fleet Captain asked.
“More likely going back to their carriers,” the admiral growled. “Which are going to dog our steps no matter what we do. Make for the frigate. Quickly!”
“I think that’s about it, sir,” Gunny Rutherford said. His armor was covered in blood as was the captain’s; the last group of Changed had tried very hard to break out from the Blood Lord lines. “Six dead, fourteen wounded. Most of the wounded will survive.”
“Gunny, is it just me or was this stupidly easy?” the captain asked. He didn’t like losing people, but given that they had been outnumbered at least five to one that was a ridiculous total.
“It always is, sir,” the gunny said, puffing up his stogie and tossing aside his battered and burned shield, “when you’ve got the right mix.”
“The New Destiny fleet is fleeing to the south,” Shar said. “Both carriers are on the bottom along with their anti-dragon frigates. All they have left are ballista frigates.”
“Leave ’em,” Edmund said. “Two dreadnoughts filled with archers can make hash of ballista frigates. How are the dragons holding up?”
“We lost about a dozen one way or another,” Shar admitted. “Seven wounded that will be able to fly in a few days. All the Silverdrake made it back. And, you were right, the dreadnoughts are in sight to the north.”
“Signal nine Silverdrake detached to the dreadnoughts; they have stalls set up for them. Then signal the fleet to make sail northeast. We’ve got more carriers to hunt.”