Deep Seas Chapter 27

27.

The Surface

Lady Jan had recalled all the miners to the port area. She had also instructed the downloading of the crates from the supply ships hull. She wanted to use her undisclosed weapon on the enemies. They have broken through the north line defenses and her eastern cities' army were all in retreat to the south. She had got the news that the Albatross and Catfish were destroyed. All her crews have perished in the battle.  She stood there on the pier with the ceremonial table laid out for the prayers to the departed crews. To the rear of her were the miners who were summoned there to witness the prayers.

“My words are few. We will take vengeance on our downed friends and leaders.” Lady Jan then motioned to the lined-up crates on the pier. “Behold in there lies our new weapon. You will assist in assembling it and then we shall take the fight to a new level.”

With those words, Kosovan stepped forth to organize the workforce on the crates. Lady Jan then approached the Senior Captain Cheng Ha.

“I hoped you have a good hunt.” Lady Jan wished of him. “I have reported that the Sea King may be out in the sea.”

“Then the Mother Dragon shall tear into the Sea King.” Senior Captain Cheng Ha smiled. Lady Jan turned away and looked to the port named as the Rising East.

It was a fine place to retire but with the so-called invasion, she had cramped the dockside with her army of one hundred there. The town of Rising East was empty then with the residents kept in their homes while fifty warriors under Bian Feng patrolled the streets. There were the five exo-skeleton warriors that were located to the inner boundary which was near the fuel dump and mineral storage. The other exoskeletons were deployed at the outer boundary. The outer boundary was marked by the two lines of trenches which were covered by the three thousand warriors who were holding the trenches. The warriors were reinforced with the thirty twelve pounders and the machine guns. They also brought with them the explosive rockets that were designed by her inventors. 

Across the land up north Lord Stuart sat on his high back seat and in turn swept his sight on the empty seats in the Hall. The so-named loyalists to his cause have abandoned him for the old governing body. He was to sigh when the Lord Chamberlain Gibbons has stepped in with haste.

“Thank goodness, you are here Lord Stuart.” The Lord Chamberlain stepped up. “We need to discuss our options.”

Lord Stuart smiled at the clumsy Lord Chamberlain. The others have already readied his cases of inheritance and were there for one other issue.

“I recalled that you took from me…I meant the country coffers some hundred thousand. Given the situation which we are ….”

“Yes, you may have it return immediately.” Lord Stuart spoke up. He motioned to the stacked up cases by the side. “Those three cases should be enough to repay the coffers. They are rare vintage rum and whiskeys. I doubt you could find any left out there.”

“Rum and whiskeys? You must be mad. How would you expect me to market them?” Lord Chamberlain Gibbons cried out in distress. “I need is solid gold or at worse treasury bills.”

“Those I am short of with now. Do be a pal and take those in good faith.” Lord Stuart explained to the other. “Or you may leave it in my care.”

“You are a fool, Ian.” Lord Chamberlain Gibbons turned to walk away to join with his family waiting outside the castle grounds. He stopped then at the doorway when the guards marched in. They were from the 1^st Guards units which were posted there to protect his Lordship.

“Captain Murray, how may I address your presence here?” Lord Stuart asked the young Captain. “I do not see Colonel Bain and assumed the worse had happened.”

“Lord Ian Stuart, you are hereby placed under house arrest for conspiracy against the government of the day.” Captain Murray announced to the man seated at the high back seat.

“Does that include him, Captain Murray?” Lord Stuart pointed to the Lord Chamberlain. Before the Captain could reply Lord Stuart continued while looking at them later.

“Gibbons, old chap. Looks like you will be joining me in Hell.” Lord Stuart pulled at the lever which triggered off the hidden bombs in the castle walls. “And it will be with a large bang.”

The House of Stuart was soon buried under the crumbled castle.

At about the same time, Lord Henry had arrived at the battlefront. He was ridden there in the carriage led by Corporal Jones at the reins. When the carriage arrived at the Command Centre, Lord Henry was received by General Gale.

“Your staffs were kind enough to arrange for us a tea party tent.” General Gale pointed to the square tent placed there by the Sergeant Major who had arrived earlier. Both of them convened to the tent and were served tea in the fine china set.

“Colonel Kingsley and Colonel Braddock will be joining us in a day soon. They are hampered by the loss of fuel, but they have compensated with the efficient rail service which was bringing the armored here.” General Gale explained to him. “I got the other regiments here.”

Lord Henry looked to the assembled twelve artillery pieces. They looked impressive on the battlefront with their six-pounders pointed upwards. He also saw the line of twenty Mark I armored.

“Oh, those came from the other companies. They were under the command of one Colonel Peter Mason but I transferred command to Braddock. Colonel Mason will be part of my command adviser.” That means Colonel Mason was under detention and his command transferred to Braddock.

“Colonel Braddock will have a new division of fifty armored tanks by then with the few more collected along the journey. That will enough for us to win back the South.”

“I can’t pull everyone here. We do have the order to maintain the other areas.” General Gale smiled and continued. “But it will be sufficient.” 

It was then the skies roared with the sounds of the flying boxes. There were half a dozen Caldron and a dozen of the Sopwith.

“Those are our own. I got them off the bases to fly for us. They almost took the smile off Wing Commander Pierre but that all sorted out. They were hunting the renegade pilots.”  General Gale took a sip of the tea. “Our dirigibles are behind the hill there. We got four of them and ready for the bombardment.”

Lord Henry was impressed and then added that his fleet was on the way.

“Unfortunately I know not where.” Lord Henry smiled in a sheepish manner. “They are rather spread out in the open sea. I may join them soon.”

“Colonel Kingsley can handle things up North. I heard the House of Stuart has…. perished in their house from an explosion.” General Gale reported on.

So the war was then to the South against the invaders.

The Depth

Lieutenant Galen looked at the men on the pier at Big Jaws. The ships have al returned but the men wanted to add their part to the war. They had conferred and then decided to form their fleet.

“You do not have any weapons besides the machine guns. They have cannons. And above all, they are larger in the fleet than all our ships.” Lieutenant Galen had challenged the men. They went into silence until one of them spoke up.

“We have harpoons. We can spear them.”

“Aye, we can attach the explosives to the harpoons.” Another one spoke.

“It’s not the first time we have done that.” Another added on. The men have fashioned explosives charges to the harpoons before. It was one way they could kill the sea predators at sea

“Aye, we are fishermen. We will make use of the sea and its nature to fight back.” Another added in the comments. Lieutenant Galen shrugged his shoulders and finally consented.

“Their cruisers are huge so we make ours match theirs. After all, they could mount more guns.” Another added in the comment and he was booed to remain silent.

“We need not worry about that. God is with us here.” Lieutenant Galen looked at them and smiled. “I want the ships equipped for the war.”

The assembled all roared their agreement to the Lieutenant’s call.

Out at sea, the boats from Big Jaws has joined in the search for the Shark’s submersible. They could only assume the worse had befallen the submerged. They have found Shark Three and it was towed back by the ships. Just outside of Small Jaws waters, Captain Ryan Neal looked to the high sea waves from the comfort of his high seat. He was a sailor before he joined the Army, and then back at the sails. There was no better life than sailing the high seas and enduring all the challenges it offered. He smiled that he had married a fisherman’s wife; she hung the lantern on the window sill to await his return be it fair or rough weather. His ship the Neptune was no different from the others except that he had armed himself with the harpoon gun at the aft. He refused to have it dismantled and claimed he will hunt the serpent with it.

“Captain, the Nemo signaling us.” The crew alerted him on the signals that were transmitted across the space of a hundred yards by using flags. “They got new orders from Sea King. We are to hold the position for Sea King.”

“Reply to Nemo. Will do. Follow me to the cove. We will shelter there. My regards to Captain Andrew on his maiden sail.” Captain Neal replied. The young Captain had taken over from his father who was down with gout. He was one of the inhabitants of the island but decided to join in with Lord Henry. He was not familiar with the coastal line there so it was up to Captain Neal to guide him. He watched the other ships sailed back to Little Jaws. One was towing Shark Three back to Little Jaws.

“Captain, we have to cover the flank of the fleet too.” Captain Neal looked at the returning fleet of makeshift battleships.

“Alert on portside.” Captain Neal looked toward there and counted three destroyers and one cruiser. It was the Third Fleet which had split into two; the first group was the cruiser and the three destroyers. The remaining two destroyers and ten troopships with the five supplies ships were still on the route towards Bright.

“Check the estimated arrival of the Sea King. We may need her help.” Captain Neal then called for the signal sent to Shark Three towing boat sail. “Tell them of the new threat.

Shark Three was under the command of First Officer Stacy with Senior Sailor Tom ‘Tank’ Jenks. She saw the signal and then disengaged from the towing ship/

“Say old chap” Tom looked to his companion on Shark Three. “Reckon we are due to for action now.”

“I am not amused at that,” Stacy replied. “I hate to be a spoilsport but are you sure we can defeat them. We got a fleet out there and we are one small submerged. The only advantage is the enemies know nothing of us.”

“I have my confidence in Dolly here. She and I may be new to the task but we will prevail.” The submerged Shark Three turned to face the fleet.

Shark Three did not see it then. The main harpoon fired from the aft of the Mother Dragon impacted on the submerged. The explosive tip ignited the explosion which tore Shark Three into two portions. Sailor Tom was thrown against the aft of the Shark Three. The impact hit his head and caused him to lose consciousness. First Officer Stacy did not stand a chance. The explosion killed her then.

Captain Neal heard the explosion and moved to look starboard. He saw the wreckage of Shark Three before he took action. He steered to the starboard while he searched for the enemy submerge. He saw it too late when the enemy submerged rammed into the stern. The bigger submerged pushed ship off its course and the impact damaged the engine.

“What the…” It was adrift in the seawater but it gave Captain Neal a chance to view the enemy.

“Damn the inventors on their design. That one rivals more than the Sea King.” Captain Neal kick starts the engines but it was dead. At that moment, the water seeped in at the cracks at the stern. He tried to kick start the engine several times but it was not working. The water levels were rising.

Across the distance, Senior Captain Cheng Ha smiled at the drifting ship, and then he saw the sailors jumped into the sea. He smiled and then called for his aide.

“Throw out the baits. We want the sharks to come in.” The command was carried out. The sharks could detect the bait up to quarter a mile but other predators could do more. It also attracted the serpent which was in the waters looking to avenge the death of its new mate. The serpent came in fast.

It saw the Mother Dragon which was larger than the others. It recognized the design. That fish was not easy to consume. So it focused on the other prey. In war, there are times you could select your targets before you attempt the final kill. The best strategy was to get the others to battle your enemy. The serpents saw the other predators; the white sharks and giant jellies were rushing to it. It swam towards them.

The predators saw the serpent. 

The ones that the serpent sought were the box jelly. The mutations of the sea environment have caused them to be huge to man-size but it was their potent toxic which had increased a hundred forth. They learned to hunt in packs and above all, they were there for the kill. It was never for consumption. The sharks were avoiding them and so were the squids. The serpent went in for the distraction. It swam into the pack of squids and used its body density to push them towards the box jelly. It worked when the other predators were stung by the jellyfish tentacles.  The serpent swam on from the carnage even though it was hurt by the venom on its tail. It wanted the box jellies to join in the carnage.

It was feeding the carnage of vengeance so that the sea predators will soon kill its numbers by blind rages. The frenzy of the kill soon attracted the sharks who went in by instinct.

For the serpent had one thing in mind then; vengeance was the deadly venom that once it coursed inside the body, it supersedes all other pains. It does not kill by itself it makes one its killer.

Captain Cheng Ha saw the carnage from its glass view. It was like watching a movie where the main battle was taking place.

“Steer away on twenty to portside.” The Mother Dragon pulled away from the carnage. It was not seeking vengeance but the ultimate glory of killing predators but to hunt the other ships including the submerged Sea King that was reputed to be in the sea. It had made great speed to arrive there and the battle was ongoing.