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Post by Lord Harrab on Feb 16, 2015 22:00:16 GMT
When she heard the Soviet Union was going to war scarcely a year ago, Natashsa Petrova had thought it would have been against Finland or Germany, an enemy she could understand and hate, but when the world had erupted into fire and war it was no human enemy that threw the match.
They had come from above the clouds, suddenly and without warning to invade Poland and midway island in the pacific, strange black armored spider-tanks, sleek arrowhead planes that flew without prop or wings, and huge bulky and inhuman ships of war, attacking and killing anything they found in their gunfights.
The world had been preping for war regardless, and perhaps that is what saved them from instant defeat, although poland, most of germany and the entirety of eastern Europe had fallen before the onslaught, terrified civilans and soidlers fleeing to wherever they could, the alien machines right on their heels.
The Aliens were named Axis in an attempt to understand but their technology was far in advance of their human foes, only sheer numbers and rugged determination meant the humans could hold against these machines. Tiger and t-34s fighting side by side to halt the enemy's daytime advance, infantry from all nations getting mixed up, giving etch other supporting fire, soviets dragged german panzer grenadiers to cover while British rifle sections gave them cover and American medics waited to tend the wounds. In the flash of fire the aliens had done what mankind itself could not, it had united near enemies as brothers.
it was not enough.
The Axis did not fight at night through, it was discovered, but that did not mean they were idle. in the center of their encampments they built huge portals at sunset, and more of their kind would pour through. Nighttime bomb raids by the American Army Airforce were met with sleek and deadly fighter aircraft able to pick through the darkness and down entire wings of b-17s and their escorts, and those few lucky enough to break through to begin their run were met by accurate and well sited anti-aircraft artillery. Night time raids were called off as losses mounted, and day by day the Aliens advanced further into soveit lands and threw their aircraft at Great Britains radar and dedicated pilots, but even with the United States sending convoy after convoy through the alien's submarine packs that infested the Atlantic, it was only a matter of time before the entirety of Europe was under alien control and from there, they would spread further.
The Soviet Union would not let that happen. June 25th, 1942 4:12 am Soviet UnionWhen she had been a girl, the night sky had always enthralled her, she would stay up at night and gaze up at them in wonder and awe, but now they seemed hostile and cold. An ally of the enemy and the source of their kin. Natasha removed her hands from her flight stick for a second to try and work some warmth into her hands, her Polikarpov U-2LSh biplane wobbling slightly in formation with its two sister aircraft and her Sister in the second seat glanced back at her in concern at the unexpected motion. natasha quickly righted the plane and her sister returned to her vigil for enemy night fighters, even though Below the Russian countryside would soon give way to the scared and burned no-man's land and allied forces would be looking up in surprise and perhaps hope at the sound of their engines overhead. The Soviets had discovered a flaw in the alien's doctrine. their aircraft were fast and maneuverable, but against old and forgotten biplanes like the one Natasha and her fellow members of the 588th night Bomber regiment used that speed worked against them, they could not keep their guns on these slow aircraft long enough to get a kill, and whatever sorcerry they used to hunt at night was useless against these canvas planes. if they wanted to intercept them, they had to lower their technology to match. Searchlights and gun-positions were their attempt at countering these nightime bomber raids, but the Night witches countered that too in their own way. "Tally Bandit! Four oclock high!" her sister suddenly shouted and Natasha reacted instantly, throttled back and threw the plane into a steep bank, while the rear mounted machine-guns of the three aircraft opened up. With a screech of its strange engines the alien fighter shot past in a flash, thwarted in its attack and she could see it pull back and climb at an impossible rate, converting its speed to altitude and despite her fear, natasha felt a twinge of envy. What was it like to pilot such a machine that danced on the air and made gravity obey its wishes? "he's coming back around! All planes break!' the flight leader shouted in her radio, "Time to dance witches!" red tracer rounds flashed past natasha's airframe, punched a few holes in her right wing as she threw the plane into the same evasive move again, and again the enemy flashed past like a daemon of nightmares, for a moment she though she could see a shadow within turn to stare into her soul, but then it was gone, tracer fire from her sister planes flashing past after it. this was the same routine they always did, sometimes several times a night, the night witches would be launched against a target, an interceptor would find them and the Witches would frustrate any attempt it made to get a kill shot and eventually the enemy would vanish, either frustrated or due to fuel needs and the night witches would vanish into the night that was their shield. This one was unusually determined, again he climbed on twin pillars of blue fire and again he dived on her and only her, it wanted to kill her and only her. Anger filled her veins then, who was this alien beast that sought to threaten her on her land? She throttled up and pointed the nose up to meet his charge as her fellows scattered, if he wanted a fight, she would give him one. Gunfire leapt between the two planes, her yellow tracer and its red, more holes appeared in her airframe and her windshield shattered as a round found itsway through her prop to bounce off the glass surface, but all she saw was her sister's fire flashing over her head as she too chllanged this emeny to a duel. This witch had had enough of being toyed with the alien suddenly broke off, smoke trailing from its frame and despite its best efforts it slammed into the ground with all its famed speed. As one woman, the Night witches let out a roar of triumph, and they knew the allied forces behind them would have seen the crash and hoped they would be inspired by it. No time to celebrate however, and the three planes regrouped, they had a payload to deliver. The Polikarpovs hugged the ground as they neared the enemy lines, their rear gunners scanning the sky for more bandits willing to try their luck. No words were exchanged, everyone knew their duty and wouldn't waste time repeating it. As they passed over a village that still burned from alien bombardment, the flight lead broke off and Natasha and the other Witches climbed upwards toward the threatening and hostile sky. Almost instantly searchlights found them and the two planes broke formation and dived, forcing the searchlights to choose between them, as flack and tracer fire leaped up to greet them. natshas threw her plane about the sky, trying to thwart the enemy gunners aim as explosions and bullets filled the sky around her and the searchlight blinded her so she was flying my touch and memory, but for a moment she saw the flight lead's aircraft gliding towards the huge portal at the camps center from the other direction silent and like a shadow and ignored by the gunners who had no idea she was there. She would have killed her engine after her first pass, and now was coasting towards the target she had identified. BOOM rockets and bombs lept from her wings and stuck the portal, bathing it in flame as the night Witch restared her egine and fled back across the enemies own gunline, their weapons turning to fire at this threat from a new direction. but she was past and her sisters reformed with her as the enemy looked to the west for a threat that was already gone. this time it was Natasha who broke off from the other two, sliding across the dark countyside like an assassin, from the north came the thunder of guns and the dance of searchlights. Her Sisters were buying her time. She didn't need to waste it looking for teh target, it was light up nicely by her flight leads run, and with a sudden thunk, she turned off her engine and turned into her attack run. the creak of her plane and the shudder of the wind against her plane's tension wires were the only noise from the south, but she felt the enemy could hear her breath in her lungs as she lined the plane up on their prized portal. A kilometer to target, eight hundred meters, seven, six, five. weapon release. BOOM! a flack shell exploded scant meters in front of her plane, just as she fired and her engine roared back into life, no time to check if she had hit, and she throttled forward and banked right, not wanting to imitate her flight lead if the enemy were already getting wise to their attack. "A hit! A Hit!' her sister yelled, 'target destroyed!' Natasha felt a thrill course though her, perhaps when morning comes the men on the ground would have an easier time of it. but when she regrouped with her fellow night witches, only one plane met her at the rally point and Natasha mourned her fallen sisters. At least they had succeed in their mission. "tally bandits!" he sister yelled, " Five bandits coming in fast on our six!" the two human aircraft broke apart, but the flight lead was a second too slow, gunfire riddled her plane and the bodies of the crew and with flames eurpting across the airframe, it began its death dive towards the russian soil below. natshas had no time to even register her comrades deaths, banking right again and then left, then right again as the dawn light began to creep across the land below. they had taken too long and now her cloak of shadows was gone. Her sister in the gunner seat did what she could, firing untill her weapon glowed red hot and with a finial click that sounded like the closing of a tomb, it jammed. the sky around them was filled with tracer fire, blue trails and black planes as they swarmed around this lone interloper, ripping her wings and airframe, toying with her, wanting her to know how helpless she was. Still she fought, even as her gunner cursed and wrestled with their only weapon. everywhere she turned there was an emey coming right at her, guns blazing, tearing her apart. with a soft sigh and a jerk, her sister died, a bullet blowing her chest open and paining the back of Natasha's head with her blood. Another witch fallen She wished she could ram one of the bastards, but all she could do was evade and evade and wait to die. She pulled her service pistol from its holster and fired at an enemy as it shot past, cursing it and its kind in everyday she could imagine, fighting and dying as a soldier should. "Tally ho! The attack is on. All planes, Support the witch, get her out of their gents, can't let her have all the fun!' suddenly the sky was filled with greys, blues and greens. Spitfires, Yaks, Corsairs and Me109s leaped into the fight around her, driving back the enemy while above b-17s rumbled and below a dust collum formed behind armored coloum of a size she had never seen. Her comrades had seen her pain and had come to avenge her. She smiled, clutching the hole in her side and died with a smile on her face. She had succeeded and humanity would survive another day.
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Post by Warork on Feb 17, 2015 2:38:05 GMT
Awww yisss...mothafuckin Night Witches...
Well, as you know, I like the idea, harrab, and I'm still convinced it could make a good alt history RP one day.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2015 2:48:01 GMT
It's an interesting scenario, could make for a very interesting RP.
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Post by Lord Harrab on Apr 4, 2015 0:40:35 GMT
Part 2: In their own Track,12:34 am, July 6th, 1942 U-511, Type IXB U-boat Exiled German Kreigsmarine Mid-Atlantic. The Axis Convoy had enough firepower to turn a city to dust, energy cannons, unguided rockets, torpedoes machine guns and AA mounts, their radar was top notch, even the British could barley match them for accurate target acquisition at range. This convoy of merchant ship hunters could annihilate a much larger human surface fleet with minimal losses and go on to pillage the aid convoys Great Britain, the Soviet union and the exiled German people needed to survive, at its heart, a Massive Portal Carrier, their flag ship and key to reinforcing the fleet and providing its Combat Air patrols. it had no Idea U-511 was currently easing its way through its escorts' sonar net at less than two knots. The inside of U-511 was cramped, smelly, hot but most importantly silent. No-one from the captain to the helmsman even dared to whisper, messages were relayed with hand gestures down a line of men and women too scared to even know they were afraid. It was necessary, sinking an escort destroyer would do nothing to halt this fleet, it would be replaced and U-511 would have lost the one advantage it had over this inhuman enemies, right now the Axis were steaming towards the American coast, hunting a convoy that had fled back that way when this force had appeared on its radar, they were looking outwards, not down, and U-511's captain Fiona Herreshoff hoped to kill the flagship and then crash dive to crush depth, using the confusion and noise of the Carrier's death to mask their escape back towards Free France. Many had at first protested women in combat roles, let alone in command of a submarine often out of port for weeks at a time, but the simple fact remained the exiled requirements of the German people could not afford to be picky, if you were german(ish) and could stand, run and fire a rifle, you were good enough. it was skill and talent that dictated where the High command placed you. knew how to shut up, follow orders and didn't go insane while the dephs of the ocean slowly crushed your thing metal hull? You were U-boat material. Simple enough. Fiona had been given command because she was damn good at it, her crew knew this and so didn't care that she was a woman, she kept them alive and that was all that mattered. She was sure a few of them were reconsidering in the depths of their mind right now, the little betrayals that entered the mind whenever danger loomed its ugly head, as she stood like a statute over the map table, making calculations based of speed, depth, and last location, only her eyes moved, map, her first officer, the sonar operator, back to the map, then to the crewwoman in the hatch, watching her for a gesture to relay down to the torpedo room. Her gaze flashed to her sonar operator again, he was listening to the prop noise of the ships around them, for any sign they had been detected and they would have to cancel the attack and try to escape before the ashcans rained down on them. he looked like he had died, except for a thin film of sweat that trickled unheeded down his face you's not have know she was alive, if their cover was blown, it was up to him to get the warning out or everyone died, his concentration was like iron. They had found this force pretty much by accident about a day ago, U-511 had been cursing on the surface to charge its barrites, and give the crew some sweet night air, her orders to 'seek and destroy any targets of opportunity" in this map grid and her look outs had spotted the fleet steaming pretty much right for them. So they had dived, and waited for the fleet to pass over them, as dead and still so that they apreared to be an empty patch of ocean, come on fellow aliens lets steam on ahead and not bother with active sonar we have alien things to do, lets not worry about primitive human submarines. it had apparently worked and now the moment of truth drew closer. her sonar man made a slow gesture, carrier halting. portal opening, escorts moving away. Fiona tapped her first officer on the shoulder, unnecessary but a habit of hers when hunting then made the gesture for preiscope it was relayed to the helmsmen and the crew felt the ballast tank ease out a small trickle of water and the sub acended. its captain moving on bare feet to the periscope and pulled it down soothingly on oiled mechanisms to her eye. the water fell away and the Monster filled the cross-hairs. Their position could not be more perfect it only roughly resembled a ship as she knew them, like someone had dumped an odd and angled citadel on a freighter hull and slapped a huge ring on the bow with cranes to partialy lower it between its duel bows to the water for ship deployment. For the day she had been stalking her prey she had taken chances to study it, watch it work, and now she knew enough to kill it. it was turning into the wind, so it would be launching planes, and it was turning broadside on to her unnoticed hunter, and the escorts were moving to provide Anti-aircraft deference and discourage any of the convoy's escorts from suicide rushing the fleet, this all worked to U-511's advantage. At this range they couldn't miss. Captain Herreshoff extended a hand outwards, two fingers raised, then flattened her hand and pushed forward. U-511 flooded its forward torpedo tubes. instantly there was a reaction on the Portal carrier, on its stern, AA Turrets lowered and red light flashed across the surface to the ocean and Fiona threw cation to the wind. "Fire one, fire two." The u boat shuddered as the weapons were launched from a cloud of oxygen bubbles towards the suddenly alarmed prey but Fiona didn't wait to see if they would hit, they had been aimed well and the ship's escorts would be right on them. they had Thirty seconds to escape below the effective range of depth charges "Helmsman, tewnty degrees down bubble, hard to starboard, all ahead full, make our depth 230 meters, Launch BOLD canisters." Like a Bird scared out of its bush, U-511 leapt into sudden activity, all thoughts of stealth lost in favor of getting as far down into the depths as it could, launching small canisters of gas that would hopeful confuse the incoming escorts, the Uboat sank like a stone. Up above the escorts would be closing on her last position and the canisters they had left, sonar active and angry, and soon they would be dropping depth charges in a tight grid around them, where even a near miss would spell their doom. "torpedo one has hit.' the sonar operator reported, "Torpedo two has hit. she's breaking up captain." She felt a momentary rush, a carrier kill, one for the record books, before she forced herself back to reality, a glance at the depth meter put them at nearly two hundred metered down, good enough. "All Stop," she barked, instantly the vibration of the engines ceased, "silent running." it fell like a blanket, every ear listening with such intensity she imagined she could feel the air being pulled into them, around them, U-511 creaked and groaned at the pressuse on her hull and Fiona placed a hand out to touch it, reassuring the boat to endure for her crew's sake. there they hung, suspended and still while above the water was churned into foam by escort ship wakes and depth charge explosions. Fiona imagined the hulk of the carrier descending in tatters beside them and she snared at it, "we may be primitive, but we're good enough to kill you." she thought to its inhuman crew, "die in the depths of my ocean."The escorts would be panicking now, so close to the US Mainland without the reassurance of a carrier at their heart, the US Navy would now go onto the offensive, punching a hole for the convoys to exploit. After what felt like an eternity, the sound and fury above died down and the escorts fled back towards Europe, they had escaped, but She still had fuel and torpedoes left, a homeland to reclaim. U-511 slunk away into the dark, on the hunt for another target.
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Post by Lord Harrab on Jun 24, 2015 10:07:02 GMT
Part 3: Rebirth. 4:01 am, August 6th, 1942
PBY-5A Consolidated PBY Catalina B-64, "Big Girl."
United States Naval Air Wing
North Pacific Ocean, roughly 1200 km north east of Japan.
Starlight reflected of the still waters of the Pacific ocean, turning the almost smooth surface of the largest body of water in the world into a second sky beneath the Big Girls bulk as she cruised serenely through the final leg of her patrol and counter-reconnaissance mission, the large and unwieldy aircraft lazy adjusting it heading towards the Japanese Home islands, there she would refuel, have any kinks worked out, and then begin the long and lonely trip back home to Attu Sation. Lieutenant Jhon Flint had to concentrate almost every minute of the Big Girls journey, as its pilot, he found it a challenge to discern the difference between the water and the sky in which they flew, both being dark, and relying mostly on his instruments to do the hard work. the rest of his eight strong crew, kept their eyes open for Axis Night fighters or surface vessels looking to expand northwards, the rule against Night fighting in Europe didn't seem to count here, and JABDSCOM (Japanese, American, British, Dutch and Soviet Command) was constantly bombarded with reports skirmishes and raids by the enemy fleets in the hours of darkness, hence'this lone Catalina cutting through the sky alone towards a foreign nation many assumed they'd be at war with by now, but instead waited with open arms for their arrival and reports, trusting the security of their northern waters to a foreign nation. They had been informed that the Soviet Pacific Fleet would likewise be out at sea on ASW and their own recon, further complicating things for Big Girl and her fellow seaplanes, as they would have to waste time confirming hostile targets were actually hostile and not just some drunken Russian boat wandering around their AO while also confirming to that same Russian that they were allied recon before their AA gunners got jumpy. Jhon yawned and had his navigator Sam Thursday check their heading, worked out a crick in his neck, and settled in for a boring final leg.
4:01 am August 6th, 1942 UNKNOWN UNKNOWN He could still feel the heat of flames on his skin, smell the smoke, hear the alarms and gunfire.
His heart rate increased slightly. He smiled. that much was the same.
The ship rocked beneath him, feeling his discomfort, its weapons twitching in their mounts, he calmed her with a thought. That time would come, but for now he ordered full ahead, rejoicing at the sight and smell of his ship at sea.
The radar pinged. it had located a target and the helmsman wordlessly adjusted course to intercept.
The mission was simple
Seek and Destroy. 4:15 am August 6th, 1942 USS Liberty, Supply Freighter US Merchant Navy, Convoy 34 bound for Japan North Pacific Ocean, roughly 1200 km north east of Japan.
The crew were scared, alone and only capable of 11 knots, her captain knew she was easy prey out here for anything with a gun and ill intent and he cursed his luck in becoming separated from the rest of the convoy in that storm a few days back, their only option to carry on as they were and hope against hope the ocean was big enough for them to slip through So here she was, a lone freighter packed to the gills with ammo, fuel and food, with several pop guns for defense and the night its only ally. "Sir!"his first officer called, sticking his head into the bridge, "look out's spotted something, could be our convoy." "lets be doubly certain before we get too friendly."the captain warned, stepping out to join the other man, raising the telescope his father had given him to see for himself while his officer gave the proximate bearing of the sighting. It was in their path, and he had just settled his gaze upon the dark smudges on the horizon, when one of them fired off a star shell in their direction, and as one the fleet turned towards the lone freighter, their strange angled hulls, cutting through the water with frighting speed. "Oh shit!"the captain swore, dropping the telescope in sudden fear, it rolled across the deck unheeded and dropped into the water, "General quarters! Enemy fleet sighted, bring us about!" The klaxon sounded and men were running about, getting in each others way and shouting, momentarily panicked, but the captain ran to the radio room just behind the bridge, "break radio silence, transmit our location and an SOS, report hostile surface fleet of 6 or more vessels. "Aye Aye Sir."the man replied, but the captain was already back on the bridge and preparing to defend his ship. "get the 4 inch loaded with AP, man the AA guns, have damage control teams ready, c'mon you sons of dogs, you're US Navy god dammit!"
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pause
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Interesting, he thought, he hadn't noticed it as he closed in with his target, but it appeared there was a Merchant ship lurking in the sector, and he silently commend its captain for his skill. Until it had started transmitting its distress, he hadn't noticed it and most likely neither had the enemy, likely they had been spooked by the raiding fleet he had been stalking and now like a sheep that had wandered into a pack of wolves, it would doubtless be torn apart for their misfortune.
Anger filled his veins then, he would not let others suffer his fate, not while he still had a ship beneath him.
he checked the range, risking an active radar ping, he would be in effective firing range in a few minutes.
He hoped the merchant captain was as good as he thought.
"they are firing sir!" "Hard to port!"the captain yelled, Straining from the turn to starboard the ship was already making, and heavy laden with the necessities of war, the USS Liberty was slow to react, swinging her rudder around took time she simply didn't have, and it was only the darkness and the range that saved her from instant destruction. Shellfire from the leading ship straddled her, soaking the gun crews but absolutely preferable to having one of the HE shells from the alien guns penetrating the thin hull and the crew savored every moment of life fate gave them. the change in heading worked with the second volley though, hostile gunners not expecting the ship to waste time and speed. behind the approaching destroyers, the merchant captain could see smaller lights rising off of a larger ship behind them and he cursed his sins that had lead for him here, they had an escort carrier too and it was sending up some of their strange and unnaturally fast dive bombers, as if the freighter had any chance of survival as it was. the third salvo impacted with a fury that shook the ship. instantly the ship was on fire, the forward cargo hold breached and belching thick smoke and flames into the night sky. now their slim advantage of darkness was lost, although through his fear was was proud to see the damage control teams were already working to smother the flames, futile as it was. there was a sound like thunder and he brace himself again, expecting the forth volley to come screaming down on his head and ending his futile resistance. The lead enemy ship, a cruiser he judged from its size, exploded. "Sir, new contact to the south, thank god, its a friendly! the captain raised his borrowed binoculars, hope welling up in his chest, and scanned the horizon to the south until he caught a flash of light at the same moment the thunder sounded again. A Battleship of obviously human design was bearing down on their attackers like an avenging angel, its forward guns slowly turning as the ship brought its rear turrets into play. Something about its profile triggered something in his memory, but he ignored it, overcrowded as he was with fear and half formed plans to squeeze as much time as it could before the enemy finished them off. The enemy fleet was turning to face this new threat, and above he could see the enemy diver bombers start their run on this bigger threat. AA Fire lanced up to meet them and if any bombs hit, he couldn't see it, but a burst of flame impacting with the water showed at least one bomber wouldn't be heading back to the carrier suddenly a single light near the battleship's bridge started to flash and he didn't need his officer's shout to read it, "They are signalling us to change heading sir, they want us to head south so they can cover us with their AA guns." "Do it."he barked, by now the enemy destroyers were firing back at the steel gaint before them, and he saw several shots land home. The Battleship ignored the hits, sailing serenely to cross the T and with another ripple of gunfire from all tewlve of its 14 inch guns, another destroyer was snapped in half. the merchant crew could see the battleship's secondary armament start to open up too, the hostile destroyers turning to head east, as if turning to run. but the captain knew better. "signal the battleship!" he ordered, "Torpedoes in the water!" He felt the torpedoes hit the water within seconds of their launch, and didn't need the warning, but he appreciated the concern regardless as he turned into their path, his huge and powerful ship remarkable maneuverable for its size, but it was too slow and the torpedoes where too well aimed and he shuddered with his ship as two hit her just below the seaplane recover crane and sea water, cold and heavy, rushed in through the gap.
DAMAGE CONTROL RESPONDING. HULL REPAIR UNDERWAY, PUMPS ARE ACTIVE.
His evasive actions and the enemy movements had forced his guns off of their carrier, which was steaming away north even as it launched more planes, but the guns were now pointing at the stern of the fleeing destroyers, and they were loaded.
He grinned, he couldn't allow them to get away with hurting his girl.
Ripple fire shuddered down the ship, and two more destroyers floundered, the lone survivor managing to avoid the same fate by virtue his guns being slightly off target due to the slight list their torpedo strike had caused. His secondary guns were pelting it with five inch shells regardless, and soon enough flames began to dance and rage across its superstructure.
and here came the dive bombers...
sudden pain shot though his head, he was at sea, no he was tied up at pearl, his aa guns were firing, no they were unmanned and safe. He was dead, killed by cowardly attacks, he was commanding his ship at sea.
His crew were dying, fires gutted his ship, their blood was on his hands The internal magazines exploded and fire consumed him.
he threw back his head and screamed.
the friendly battleship blurred.
suddenly it was ten kilometers further north and its guns roared once more, straddling the escort carrier in fire as its dive bombers released their ordnance into empty sea that had scant seconds ago held their target.
the merchant captain stared in shock and in the suddenly space within his mind, the earlier memory of recognition shouldered in and yelled.
It was Battleship 39, USS Arizona, Sunk last year when the aliens attacked pearl, risen from the dead to save him and his from similar fate, a ghost ship, that what it was, reborn to fight this inhuman enemy and save his ship.
he felt tears well up in his eyes. He wasn't worthy of the honor and he whispered a prayer of thanks to his fallen brothers as the last enemy ship burned and the USS Liberty, injured but still afloat, watched its savior vanish into the darkness after its last enemy, AA guns splitting the night sky and proud to be fighting a war it had been denied.
7:38 Am, August 6th, 1942 Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh USS Arizona, BB 39R US Pacific fleet Revenant Squadron A
His Mind was his own again. He could breathe, he could think.
His ship, his beloved USS Arizona, has faithfully awaited her captain while he recovered from the memory bleed, the fires were out, the hull was repaired and most of the flooding had been contained or expelled.
She waited patiently for his next order and nestled as he was with the heart of the ship, bound by alien technology that kept him in this twisted state of half-death, he was grateful for her company.
for he was alone, no crew walked the ships corridors, manned the guns, or tended her wounds, captured alien machines thronged the hull, re-purposed to fight their creators, auto-loaders rearmed the guns, and her soul was bound to his in a way even he couldn't understand. He could feel his friends, his crew beside him anyway, brought up with the ship from where she had been sunk with him, their souls bound to him through the ship they had all loved. encouraging him, supporting him and trusting him as they had in life, their whispers across the veil of death bolstering his spirit and vanquishing his doubts.
But if it meant an end to this war, if it meant no one else had to slip beneath the waves, he would endure the pain, the flashes of uncertainty, the memories of death.
"ï have not yet begun to fight." he hissed within his sphere of fluid, thick cables merging mind with machine, and undaunted, the USS Arizona's engines surged with new power, ready to fight and die again.
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Post by RaptorsTalon on Jun 30, 2015 18:20:36 GMT
I have to ask Harrab, are you by chance a Sabaton fan?
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Post by Lord Harrab on Jul 1, 2015 5:24:29 GMT
I have to ask Harrab, are you by chance a Sabaton fan? Did the Chapter titles give it away
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Warrender
Rising Legend
Currently suffering longterm absence from the site
Posts: 698
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Post by Warrender on Aug 3, 2015 14:34:44 GMT
I should have recognised the Sabaton reference, hehe. Looking forward to the next addition.
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