CHAPTER 54- Armada p1.

The Arabian Sea, near the coast of Diu.

The waters were starting to turn cold, as the Indian monsoon reached its final throes and the winter setting in. Dark clouds, heavy with the promise of rain, gathered on the horizon, on the already gloomy day. The sun had risen just a few hours ago, yet it was obscured by the clouds in the sky.

*Rumble* 

Governor of Portuguese India and Grand Admiral Gracia de Noronha, his weathered face etched with the lines of a life spent battling the elements and his enemies, gripped the railing of his flagship. His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, scanned the turbulent sea. 

He and his officers were standing on the deck of the flagship of the Indian Portuguese Armada, the São Rafael. The waters were unnaturally calm, and the ship appeared stable, but any sailor worth their salt knows that was just an illusion.

This was just the calm before the storm.

*Rumble!* *RUMBLE!!* 

A heavy rumble echoed across the water, a tremor felt more than heard, a harbinger of what was coming next.

"The storm's brewing, Admiral," Captain Antonio whispered, his voice tight with a blend of respect and apprehension. "Just as you predicted."Another rumble echoed in response, a deep, ominous sound that seemed to shake the very timbers of the ship.

"Aye, Captain," Noronha replied, his voice steady despite the churning in his gut. "And that's precisely why we strike now."

"Is it really a wise choice to execute the plan now?" asked António with caution and concern "If the battle plan is not executed perfectly, our own fleet will be caught in the storm." 

Being the current captain of the Fleet Flagship, and the vice admiral, Antonio de Faria had many responsibilities. One of them was preventing the Admiral from making a mistake and wasting valuable lives. 

He could feel the unease stirring amongst his crew, A tremor that ran through their usually stoic faces. Haunted memories flickered in their eyes, a silent testament to the terror of being swallowed whole by the unforgiving sea.

The tales of sailors being lost at sea, and the horrors that befall on them was a genre as old as seafaring. Sure they would all have fun re-telling them on a lonely night on the sea, but to actually experience it? That is where most of them draw the line.

It would be even more dangerous for people such as Noronha and Antonio. In the rare case that they survive, being the nobles that they are, it would be a political suicide, as they would be held responsible for the loss of the fleet, or could be even held for ransom if captured. 

"Although the weather is unfortunate, it is the reason we are executing this battle plan," said the Admiral, reiterating the point to Captain Antonio. " We have been waiting for an opportunity like this for over a month. If we let the Ottoman fleet go to the mainland port, it would be almost impossible to lure them out."

What they were targeting that day was a combined fleet of Ottoman and Mamluk ships, which arrived last month from a long journey from Egypt. After they reached last month, they could not make a port call because of the presence of the Portuguese fleet which was waiting for them near the mainland Diu port. 

After an interesting tip from the king of Dharanikota, and with the further aid of scout ships and merchant vessels, the portuguese were able to figure out that the Ottomans were sending a fleet to India to confront them, a part of the series of confrontations with the Christian world, that the ottomans loved to indulge in.

The Ottoman fleet, upon figuring out that the pot in which they were supposed to dock was occupied by the portuguese, instead of confronting the enemy to gain access to the port, attacked the Diu island which was originally controlled by the Portuguese, and took control of it and its port facilities, leaving the Portuguese Fleet with no nearby port to dock and resupply. 

The enemy fleet was now stationed around the small port on the island and was avoiding a direct confrontation with the portuguese fleet. It did not mean however that the Ottoman fleet was somehow inferior and scared of the portuguese.

"Admiral Noronha is right." chimed in Commander Duponza, who is supposed to lead the landing ships to the enemy port during the attack, "Our supply ships have to travel all the way back to Goa for supplies, and feed the small army that we have brought, local as they may be, is putting a strain on our ships and supply lines."

Because there is no Port, It is obviously difficult to make a port call. Some transport ships had to be removed from the fleet to add to the supply fleet, and even warships to escort them. The problem was that this weakened the frontline ships because quality and quantity go hand in hand.

"Our ships, even though they are fewer, are more than powerful enough to take out that Ottoman trash!" said one of the captains of the fleet, which received multiple agreements. 

"Fools!" muttered Noronha, while gazing out of the ship deck. Far away, but still visible on the horizon, was the Diu island—the place where the enemy fleet is gathered. As the salty breath of the sea grazed his face, his conviction only grew.

Underestimating enemies is a grave mistake, and Noronho had too much grey in his hair to make such a thing. The enemy fleet admiral had navigated the fleet all the way from Alexandria and left a wake of destruction in their path. 

It stands to reason that the man is talented, and would prove an ample match for anything Noronho might throw at him. So, despite his mature age, he was in his sixties, after all, he took command of the Portuguese armada and appointed himself the Grand Admiral. 

Because of the oncoming storm, the enemy fleet was too exposed at the small port of Diu island and had to move to a more protected port. The port on the mainland, belonging to the Gujarat Sultanate, another participant in this war, was just a few kilometres from the island and was the port they were originally aiming for.

The plan was to attack the enemy fleet when crossing the strait. The problem was that the enemy knew this too. It was an open sea, and because the portuguese were sieging the island, the enemy knew exactly where they were.

Noronha was risking his own fleet, by hedging that the enemy would try to go to a safer port. Their own fleet did not have a safe port to face the oncoming storm, as they were hundreds of miles away from another friendly port. They also needed to attack the Gujarat sultanate's port to occupy it, while the enemy fleet was occupied by their own ships. 

"If the plan fails, the land invasion would be even more costly in terms of lives than initially projected," interjected Commander Duponza, who is supposed to lead the landing ships to the enemy port. "With the enemy fleet cannons being available to guard the port, it would be a blood bath."

"We already lost the island of Diu to the enemy, we cannot delay it any further. Every ship occupied in this siege is one less ship taking wealth back home to Portugal. I will not discuss it further" declared the Governer, leaving no doubts as to what he wants. 

The fall of the island of Diu was tragic. In this timeline, as the portuguese knew about the oncoming Ottoman fleet, they had time to prepare. Noronha gathered ships all the way from Mallaca to fight against the oncoming invaders. 

Not wanting to alert the enemy, while the island was quietly being evacuated, a force for token resistance was kept. When the Ottomans finally landed, this force, was inevitably slaughtered. 

While the Ottoman fleet was all too eager to take the bait that was Diu, the portuguese fleet surrounded them and prevented them from leaving the island. If the Ottoman fleet wanted to break free, they had to defeat the better-equipped Portuguese fleet. 

The portuguese fleet was better equipped, but because of the urgency of the invasion, they did not have enough forces to break through to either of the enemy ports. So apart from some minor skirmishes, both the fleets were on standoff for the past month. 

It was not the first time the portuguese fought against the Ottomans. Both of them were under constant confrontation, trying to one-up each other, at every chance they had. Just a few years ago, the holy papal forces of Christendom had wrestled the city of Tunis away from Ottoman control. 

As for the current mess, it was caused by the previous governor, Nuno da Cunha, giving Noronho yet another reason to justify what he did to him. His predecessor's utter diplomatic failure with the Sultanate of Gujarat is the reason they were in this mess in the first place.

Diu was an island on the coast of Gujarat and was the key to controlling the spice trade from India to the Red Sea, ottomans, and the Venetians. Controlling it was like controlling the Venetian and Ottoman spice trade which flowed from India.

Cunha tried and failed to capture Diu from the Gujarat Sultanate in 1531. Even after failure, his ambitions did not disappear. When Gujarat was under threat by Humayun and his Mughal Army, the Gujarat Sultan temporarily relinquished control of the island to Cunha, under the promise that they aided Gujarat. 

When the Mughal threat was gone, The Sultan wanted to renegotiate the control of the island. Nuno da Cunha, in all his eternal wisdom, invited the Sultan to his ship and killed him by drowning under the guise of negotiations. 

The incensed Sultanate asked the Ottomans for help, and because of the enmity between them, they gladly agreed. Now, even though the Sultan and Governor Cunha were dead, the enmity between the two states has not died down.

If they had not received the message from an unlikely source, that tipped off the arrival of Ottoman forces, the portuguese would have still won the war in the long term, but the news certainly helped them prepare. 

After receiving a cryptic message from the King of Dharanikota, about an invasion fleet sent by Ottomans, Governor Noronha sent his ships to confirm the news. In the strangest turn of events, the news turned out to be true.

A young king, with no notable achievements in navy, trade, or information gathering, was able to predict a fleet that was thousands of kilometres away from his kingdom, and on a different side of the continent.

Governor Noronho found the young king intriguing. He felt the need to deepen the relationship with the kingdom and show those uncivilised people the might of the Portuguese Armada. 

However, that plan seemed to have backfired, when Captain Antonio who was then in charge of the Mallacan Fleet, was tasked with conducting a firing exercise on the coast of Dharanikota, but let the emotions of losing his father-in-law, the previous Governor, get the better of him, and attacked the port city of Machilipatnam. 

While the Governor certainly mourns his predecessor and is saddened by the unfortunate way his life was lost, he would never accept guilt and take the blame. So, when his actions inadvertently caused a diplomatic rift with a small kingdom, the man who was directly responsible, Captain Antonio, only got a slap on the wrist and no real consequences. 

Whatever happened to the diplomats captured by the Dharanikota Kingdom, he did not really care. That was the way politics and diplomacy worked. You sometimes have to sacrifice pawns, to kill the kings. 

"Prepare the ships. This ends today."