Aqua Battle
[ARK QUEEN, STATUS- EVACUATION COMPLETE]
The lifeboats were long gone. Adrian knew he had made the right choice, his mind would function better knowing that four hundred of his men would make it out alive for sure. Ark Queen was back in the open seas, they had pinned the Purgatory down to a two hundred mile radius. All ship systems were working on full power, but still- beating the Purgatory wasn’t by any means going to be easy.
“We are closing down captain”, the OOD explained.
“Good, keep me informed I will be in the CIC to begin battle preparation”
“Aye sir”
Adrian nodded at his soldiers, each one of them stood so confidently. Easy for them, they had blind faith in their captain. Adrian did not have the heart to tell them, that he himself wasn’t sure whether his plan would work. So he just nodded and closed the cabin door behind him.
The hallways were empty, as Adrian marched over the beautifully designed flooring.
CIC
Said the signed board, he placed his hand on the door which beeped.
“COMMANDER ADRIAN ENTERING”
The automated voice spoke and the door hissed open.
“Sir”, TAO Winkle saluted, “was just about to ring for you”.
“Anything?”, Adrian asked.
“Not yet captain”, the TAO explained, “we have almost covered all the probable sights for Purgatory, so I am expecting we should have them on our screen by twenty maybe thirty minutes max”.
“Weapon systems”
“Sugar and honey captain”, TAO spoke, “we’ve got all weapons on standby including twelve T-40’s ready to fire on a moment's notice”.
“Sir”, the RADAR technician called out, “we are picking up signals on the RADAR”.
Adrian sniffed, “signals as in?”
She paused for a moment and clicked a few buttons on her desk, “I think we have an accurate location from purgatory”.
“You think?”
“Well, the signature belongs to a Dardian warship so either it’s Purgatory or the Dardian navy”.
“It’s Purgatory”, Adrian decided.
“Long range missiles ready sir, fire on command”, the missile technician voiced.
Adrian walked over to the technician, “you know”, he spoke, picking up one of the toy cars the young man kept on his desk, “when you’re against a battleship, you don’t fire long range missiles. They have counter attack measures and all you manage to do is give out your location”, he placed the dummies back on the desk, “nice toys!”
The technician blushed, “sir they’re just-”
Adrian raised his finger, “I said they’re nice- the end”.
“Yes sir”
“What do we do sir?”, the TAO asked impatiently.
Adrian turned serious again, “we need to do two things- one stay out of their RADAR. I want the ship at EMCON Alpha-1 no radio signal goes in or out of the ship without my permission. Two we need to stay out their SONAR so I want the ship on QUIET-1 as well- halt all non essential activities on board, no movement at all”, he turned to face his crew, “remember a single movement can give out our location”.
“Aye sir”, the TAP nodded, pulling a lever down. All of a sudden the lighting in the ship went off and dim red lighting clicked on.
There was automated confirmation.
“Initiating EMCON ALPHA 1- process complete”.
Adrian picked up the intercom, “bridge, this is your captain- shut down engine two and three, reduce speed to one-third”.
“Shutting down engines to and three”, the helmsman responded, “mother speed now one third, aye sir”.
*******
"So here is what we know", Adrian spoke, tapping his hand on the desk, "the purgatory has T-50's which has a slightly longers strike range than our ZipTails-111, but with a lower level of accuracy", he placed his hand on the map, "So the main focus must be cross these- 25 nautical miles, with 100% invisibility"
"Because", Zepherine added, "we are in their range, but they aren't in ours".
"Exactly", Adrian pointed out.
"Our submerisble tankers are down, so what else do you have in mind?"
Adrian turned his head and skimmed through the officers seated around the table, "Lieutenant Grace”
“Yes sir”, the lady stood up excitedly.
Adrian signaled her to settle down.
“How bad are our submersible tankers?”
“Ah- sir the pressure is destabilized and the pipes will explode which will lead to a hole on the starboard side and eventual death of everyone on board”.
“Well”, Adrian mused, “I need you to do something to get it kicking”.
“It’s beyond repair sir, I cannot do anything”.
“Then do something to make it hold, twenty minutes is all I’m asking for”, Adrian explained.
Grace paused for a moment, there was something but it was a big risk, “sir if I turn on the auxiliary power unit and tape up the pipes I can probably hold the tanker from melting for about, say fifteen minutes no more”.
“Make it twenty”.
“I’ll see what I can do”, Gracer responded, “but sir I hope you understand if we are not back on the surface before the unit melts- we will sink”, she spoke adding the last part slowly.
“I understand”, Adrian nodded, “get the tankers working for twenty minutes, I will divert all the electric supply of the auxiliary unit to you”.
“Sir I will need machinists and structural engineers too”.
“You got them, anything else?”
“And”, she spoke as if remembering an old instance, “ice, lots of ice, buckets and buckets of ice”.
“I’ll get it arranged, you get crackin’ you got half an hour before we set pursuit”.
“Sir”, Grace shrugged, “even with everything you’re giving me- which apparently is nothing, no offense”, she spoke, raising her eyes, “I need at least ten, maybe fifteen hours”.
“One hour”, Adrian replied.
“Not possible”
“Two hours no more”.
“If I get a few more hours I can significantly improve the tankers”.
“All you need to do is get them to hold for twenty minutes”.
“That means I’ll have to take shortcuts- not to mention no trial runs. Which inturn leads to either all of us dead or the tankers working, plus after we do this our tankers will be toasted and totally and completely nonfunctional”.
“That shouldn’t be a problem”, Adrian spoke, “get working now”.
******
“Sir”, the OOD, called out, “Lieutenant Grace said she’s done what she could and thinks the tankers should hold”.
“She thinks?”, Adrian frowned.
“Aye sir”
“Very well”, Adrian turned to the helmsman, “all engines full ahead, once we get close let me know”.
“All engines full ahead, aye sir”.
“Lieutenant Albert”, Adrian spoke, looking at the ship's navigator who was staring at the plasma screen and making some calculations on a sheet of paper, “all good?”.
Albert’s eyes widened, “yes sir of course”, he then paused for a moment, “actually no sir, there is something”.
“What?”
“Sir”, he pointed on the plasma screen between two neighbouring islands, “purgatory is heading for this region and if they manage to cross the islands, then we will lose them in the open waters, we need to intercept them before they cross over”.
Adrian thought for a moment, “or we just force the ship to be where we want it to”.
Albert looked perplexed, “but why would they want to go where we want them to?”
“If they see an Atlantean Navy Warship ahead of them they will run in the opposite direction”, Adrian mused
“But we are behind them”, the Navigator spoke, not following.
Adrian grinned, it was one of those moments when he knew he had come up with a master plan, “that you know, that we are behind them, they don’t. So we let them think, we are ahead of them”, he spoke pointing on the other side of the island, ahead of Purgatory, “they will definitely make a run for, in the opposite direction which will lead them right back to us”, he paused for a moment to let his TAO catch up, “and we will be waiting”.
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“A SINGLE BULLET CAN WIN THE WAR, BUT ONE MUST KNOW WHERE TO FIRE IT”
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