Scene 7-VIII

There is a heavy thud, then a blast, and Njord shakes in the sky as a shockwave speeds towards them.

“What’s going on?” Fosher shouts, striding down the hallway to the stairs, and Connor pokes his head around the corner.

“Explosions on Mokyn! Jamie’s up in the crow’s nest; he says Morenne’s burning!” Connor’s pale, and his voice unsteady.

“Follow me to the top deck.” Fosher says, and runs up the stairs, breaking out onto the main deck, the wind carrying ash high over the city and it’s collecting in their sails, turning the canvas black against a dark sky. “Is Gary on the cannon deck?”

“Yeah,” Connor says, leaning out over the side, watching the smoke pouring off the island.

“Fosh! Ships are coming in from the east!” Jamie yells, high up in the crow’s nest, telescope in hand.

“Ours?”

“No!”

“Shit.” Fosher mutters, and climbs the stairs to the top deck, closely followed by Connor, and it’s true. Sleek, grey boats are approaching fast out from under the fog cover to the east they must have been hiding in. “Connor, join Gary, and wait for my command; we’re going to swing out there and get as many of these bastards as we can before they land on the beaches.”

“Yeah.” Connor says breathlessly, and tears his eyes away from the scene unfolding below them.

Fosher turns on the intership radio with a slap of a palm against the green button. “Jansen! Get up here!” He yells, and Jansen doesn’t have a chance to answer as Fosher hits the button again as another shockwave rocks the boat. “What the hell was that?”

“Another explosion!” Jamie calls, clutching onto the mast with both hands as the crow’s nest quivers.

“Well, yeah.” Fosher mutters. One hand on a wheel peg, and he spins it counterclockwise, Njord following suit, and Jamie is swearing loudly.

“Warn a guy before you do that!”

“Gary? You alive down there?”

“Barely.”

“Hmm… We’re approaching the incoming boats. When we’re closer, fire at will. Go for the ones closest to land first though. We don’t know what their land capabilities are.” Fosher says.

“Kay.”

Njord catches an easterly wind, and speeds up, the sea passing beneath them in a blur of dark blue. That same wind, unfortunately, feeds the fires of Morenne, picking them up and carrying them across clear stretches, sparks alighting in treetops and starting fresh blazes. Fosher pauses a moment to hope like hell that there’s at least one powerful Fire in the area, because, yeah.

They’ve caught up to the enemy boats, almost directly overhead them now, and Njord shudders as a bow cannon fires, and it takes only a few seconds for the targeted boat to sink below the surface.

Return fire whizzes through the air both around them and nowhere near them, and it’s a good thing all their shields are up, because sooner or later, someone’s going to get lucky. Another shot, and another boat lists heavily before something aboard explodes violently and it disintegrates into pieces of metal and fire and flesh.

Some sort of projectile connects squarely with Njord’s outer shield, and explodes on contact. The ship barely even rocks from the concussion, but now they know where they are. Fosher reacts immediately, throwing up a curtain of darkness in an already bleak sky.

Below, there is a serious of loud blasts, presumably from boats colliding with each other, and in the confusion, Gary fires eight simultaneous shots, the kickback sending Njord careening sideways. More explosions, and the ocean is lit with fiery wreckage.

Jamie, again, is swearing, and the crow’s nest is probably not the most comfortable place to be right now.

But still the task force advances forward, to the burning shores of Mokyn, and as the fog lifts higher off the water, Fosher sees that they’ll never get them all, and already the leaders are plowing high on the sand, carried forward by sweeping waves.

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Scene 7-VIII

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