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SULA’S SONG : Part 59 : THE DARK OF THE MOONS : A World of Sea tale (Work In Progress)
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SULA’S SONG : THE DARK OF THE MOONS
Part 59
by
De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)
144995 words presently written, WORK IN PROGRESS
Copyright 2022
All rights reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.
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NEW TO SULA’S SONG? READ FROM THE BEGENNING.
PART 1 is HERE
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Dorac fell past the horizon, taking the last of the light that made things easiest to see with it. All that remained were the pale starlight and the ghostly luminescence of the Long Nebula, laying low in the eastern sky.
Captain Egil drummed, “Launch and fuel your strike craft. Use no running or mast lights. Tow the weapon boats close enough to see Corlis mast lights and cast them off.
“We go to our planned strike position to await the results of your strike before launching ours.”
As he ordered the blacked out Coral Reef to set sail for his position, Captain Egil felt both pride and anticipation. As he paced the after-deck, he automatically scanned his vessel to be sure that all was shipshape. The only sound was the rush and slap of water under the bows and swirling into a short lived pale blue green bioluminescent wake behind them.
He was thinking, No matter the outcome, this will let the Corlis fleet know the folly of declaring war on Karl and the Boren fleet.
After an uneventful half hour, during which his crews prepared their fire ships for launch, the lookouts reported that the position relative to the Corlis fleet was correct. All that they could do now was wait for the visible signs that Captain Bendin's strike had happened.
When it came, the fountains of flaming, spreading fire were easily visible! With satisfaction, Captain Egil noted that the wild flames were spreading! At least four ships were ablaze!
Now commenced the hardest part of any battle. Waiting to be sure how to strike best! With no lights of his own and well away from the betraying backlight of the Long Nebula, Captain Egil had edged the Coral Reef and her three deadly chicks in close enough to observe from deck level.
What he saw was a plan working even better than hoped for! Ships downwind of the ones on fire were fleeing in panic to avoid the dangerous smoke of burning Strong Skin! In dropping sails in emergency mode, they blocked each other's views of what was happening! Ships were colliding and fouling each other's rigging!
With a broad smile, he shook hands with the crews of his own strike force. “Gentlemen! Look at what has been already done! If you strike as instructed, this should put the Fear of Karl into those panicked fish! Go, and Karl's blessing go with you!
“As soon as you have set your craft as you so well know how to do, set sail straight north towards the Whale's Tail. As soon as the Corlis fleet is hull down on the horizon, raise sail. When their masthead lights are out of sight, raise your own so that we can pick you up for our triumphant return to our beloved fleet!”
He watched the long, low sails of the fire boats spread like near invisible wings of death, as the craft sped to hit the tangled mass that the northern portion of the Corlis fleet had become!
After what seemed an interminable wait, fire bloomed with ferocity from three different places on the upwind side of the helpless enemy! He wa close enough to see the fire fountains of small oil soaked parchment fly up and sail their deadly way down the wind, sticking to whatever they touched! So many sails had been deployed that the greedy flames leaped from ship to ship on wings of burning canvass scraps!
As Captain Egil ordered the Coral Reef to make sail for the planned pickup point, he counted at least seven ships with major rigging damage from their own reckless panic! Fire accounted now for at least nine ships. Some might be able to contain the blazes, but all were in need of major repair if not total rebuilding from the waterline on up!
Soon his lookouts reported the masthead pickup lights of his crews returning.
Far to the south, the Dark Dragon's strike ship was sneaking stealthily up on the building raft and the vessels about it. She was loaded with a ship killer and the catapult master, Dav, was watching his instruments, kept pointed by trained observers. Everything lined up!
Dav struck the firing sear with a mallet before things could move more! The whole little ship bucked to the recoil when the massive projectile sailed into the darkness!
Not waiting to see the results, he and Mart, one of the loaders, were grunting as they wound the massive machine back to full cock for the next shot! Mart was reaching for another ship killer along with Behar, the other loader when they heard the observers call in nightspeech, “Hit her we did! Took out deck, huge part!”
The two loaders paused to give thumbs up! Encouraged, they wrestled the heavy round into the catapult and signaled clear! Dav was scrutinizing his aiming instruments and struck again!
The catapult let go with a massive snapping twang! The little ship bucked to the recoil again! Dav and Mart were starting the difficult job of winding the tackle that cocked their monster catapult when Behar put her back into it as well! The cocking took less than half the time! Mart and Behar, high on the success of their attack, fought the third ship killer into place!
The nightspeech of the observer/aimers told them, “Close by fall short! Hull breach, two, three meter!”
Almost instantly on the heels of the news, the catapult launched its third round! The crew, now used to the recoil had no trouble staying on their feet! They were already working the tackle to cock the machine for its next shot when they got the welcome news from up forward!
“Hit direct! Raft in two break! Joining fishes, both parts.”
The next round was a hull breacher. The observer/aimers up forward, conned the little ship playfully to line up TWO of the smaller boats that the raft had been turning out. One was being fitted for sails, the other getting masts raised.
Dav concentrated on his instruments and as all came into register, he slammed the release! The ship's response to the hull breacher was totally different but equally violent. They were close enough to hear the multiple smashing and crunching as glued Strong Skin failed spectacularly under the force of a projectile designed from the beginning to shatter it!
Both of the lined up ships started to list from water rushing in through holes that ranged from merely large to too darn big to fix! They rolled onto their sides and plunged to the bottom!
Seeing the large ship that was serving as a worker's dormitory and where reward animals were kept, trying to raise anchor and drop sail, Dav instructed the observer/aimers, “Bow, just under bowsprit give. Must not sink. Oder of Warrior Lora is.”
The observer/aimers took their time to line up the shot for him. The jibs were just beginning to fill with wind when the massive hull breacher ripped through the ship! The bowsprit, shattered at its base and its stabilizing rigging partly gone, simply folded sideways. That broke the mainbrace and much of the standing and running rigging of the foremast!
Aboard the small ship that had done so much damage in so short a time, they turned their attention to the floating hulls of the remaining ships under construction. Destroying them took very little time indeed.
They set sail for the north and a rendezvous with the Dark Dragon.
