Inu’s sailors were trying to extinguish the fire that was now burning vigorously at the bow of the ship, while the team members covered them. Roquette threw another grenade, which bounced on the deck and down an open hatch. Lewis was sighting his rifle at his opponent when Gomez popped up with one of the new pistols and put five out of six shots into the side of the man’s helmet. He fell over like a statue would, arm still extended. Lewis shifted his sights to another marine and squeezed the trigger. When he stood back up he saw that the defender ship and ship number one were tied rail to hull, the defender being eight more feet off the water, and the battle was hand to hand combat on both decks. Number three had come along side Deepwater Cutter, and Waymer was standing on deck with his hands in the air, while his crew was scrambling onto Windrider. Lewis jumped down and ran to Telini, who handed him the radio.
Lewis nearly shouted into the radio before remembering how good its reception had been. “Two thirty five, do you copy?”
The reply came quick and clear. “Go ahead.”
“Two thirty five, this is Romeo. Request assistance with one most west. Repeat, one most west is spoiling the party.”
“Copy, Romeo. Two thirty five out.”
Smoke was billowing out of the open hatch on the deck of number two, and most of her remaining marines and crew seemed more concerned with that than engaging Lewis’ team. Then he noticed a big door open in the aft cabin and a gun barrel appeared with at least a two inch bore. “One o’clock!” Lewis shouted in English. As one they turned their heads and looked at the new menace.
“When that gun comes out, keep it unmanned!” he ordered them, running back up the stairs. He found Inu lying on the upper deck, and skidded to a stop. Lewis crouched by the captain, who seemed alert, but not moving. A blood stain was growing on his shirt and his breathing was labored. He reached up and clutched at Lewis’ collar.
“Don’t let them kill my ship, Lieutenant,” he whispered, and coughed a little.
“We got ya covered, Captain.” Lewis said quietly, and then turned and shouted. “Gomez!”
He lay prone and looked over the sights of his AK at the big gun, which by then was just clearing the door. Gomez bounded up the stairs, jumped over Lewis and sat on the deck by Inu. A clear plastic shield protected the operator of the cannon, but Lewis was able to get a few shots behind it before its crew brought it around far enough to be effective. He saw two people fall as they turned it to block his shots. The team was bouncing rounds off the shield when Roquette pointed and said something that he couldn’t hear. They directed their shots lower, at the feet of the gun crew. Soon nobody was able to approach the gun, but that still left the gunner in his seat. The man was completely shielded and the gun swung around and pointed at the crate that Telini was behind. Derrik reached over and dragged him away just as the crate exploded and a great rent appeared across the deck. Roquette threw a grenade under the gun. The gunner pulled his legs onto the seat and leaned to the left to avoid the blast. He sat like that for a few seconds after the explosion, and then just toppled out of his seat. The team thwarted a few attempts to man the gun and then it sat abandoned. There was only about five feet between the two ships by then and the decks were about the same height. Lewis saw Roquette waving for him to come talk to her.
“Lieutenant,” she said when he got there. “Can we board her?”
‘Looks like the resistance is almost done,” Lewis replied. “Let’s do damage control, then I don’t see why not. Gomez! How we doin up there?”
“Hey boss,” Blair said, firing his pistol at a movement on the other ship. “Tony ain’t looking too good.”
Lewis looked at Telini, who had a splinter the size of a broom handle sticking out of his left calf.
“Throw your weapons in the water!” Roquette yelled at two marines who had come out of the fore cabin, then shot one of them when they didn’t comply immediately. The other pitched his rifle over the rail and raised his hands.
Gomez came down the stairs, pausing to shoot at the lookout. She stooped to look at Telini’s leg.
“The captain’s going to be fine, I think,” she grimaced at what she saw. “This needs to come out,” she winked at Derrik. “Now.”
Derrick reached down and yanked the piece of wood out of Telini’s calf. Telini groaned and his eyes rolled, but he recovered in a moment. He lay there and caught his breath while Gomez put some salve on it and bound it up tight.
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“You two stay here and cover us,” Lewis told Gomez and Telini. “The rest of you, let’s go.”
They ran up to the bow, where the ships were only about three feet apart. The marine still had his hands up and Lewis saw that Telini had him covered and wore a very sour expression. Someone shot at them from the aft cabin, making Blair stumble a little as his armor stopped the slug. Roquette returned fire and there was no more movement up there.
Lewis approached the marine with his hands up and said. “Go over there and sit with those two, but keep your hands up.” He relieved the man of his pistol and belt knife.
Roquette went over and sat on the seat of the big gun, trying out the controls.
“Requesting permission to fire, sir,” she said.
“At what?” Lewis asked, peering down into the open hatch where all the smoke was coming from.
“At that ship,” she answered, pointing toward the enemy ship that was menacing Captain Waymer.
“Only if you think you can miss the Deepwater Cutter.” Lewis replied.
“It’s not that far,” she looked excited.
“I’ll spot,” Lewis pulled out his field glasses. “Fire when ready.”
The shockwave staggered everyone slightly.
“Just behind the front beam and a little below the waterline,” Lewis shouted. “Do it again!”
The gun thundered a second time. A hole appeared above the waterline and a bit behind the first impact.
“Fire!” The next shot hit the beam a few inches below the waterline. “Cease fire!” Lewis yelled, as he saw that their target had slowed and was about to disappear behind Waymer’s ship.
He heard a lot of small arms fire toward the bow of the ship that they were on. Blair and Derrik were leading an assault on the bridge, which was located in the fore cabin. They had eight of Inu’s sailors. Gun smoke was thick in the air.
Roquette was bringing the gun around to target the ship that was tied to the defender’s ship, when several gunmen appeared on the aft cabin and opened fire. Lewis hit the deck and rolled behind the gun. Roquette gave it another heave, and then reached up and fired it straight into the aft cabin without aiming. The people shooting at them dove to the side, and a second later an explosion blew out the door and the windows of the cabin. The gun toppled over to the right, throwing Roquette backwards onto the deck, where she lay still, and causing Lewis to roll to the side to avoid being crushed. He got to his feet and dragged her away by the arm. There were flames coming out of the hatch amidship, tame in comparison to the conflagration burning aft. Derrik strode up through the smoke and bent to lift Roquette. Lewis ran to where Blair and the remaining sailors were leading some prisoners out of the bridge.
“Come on!” he urged. “We need to get off this thing!”
Everyone crossed to their ship and as the sailors began to push the two ships apart, Gomez hurried to Derrik’s side and examined Roquette as he laid her on the deck. Inu called from the upper deck. When Lewis got there he saw that Inu had pulled himself off the deck by a handrail, which he was leaning on and pointing over. Lewis followed his arm to a geyser of water that rose out of the sea and was landing on the number three enemy ship.
“I think that’s your submerged friends,” Inu said. “They are filling her with water. No way the bilge pumps will keep up with that.”
Lewis watched for a moment, and then turned his attention to the defender ship. The fighting had died down and the uniforms of the knights could be seen striding about both decks.
“Look,” Lewis said. “The water is not making it into the lower decks,” he pointed at the ship, which was still receiving a steady stream from the sub. “Shall we go over and see if they are ready to give up yet?”
The burning ship was drifting away and beginning to list to the starboard. A few marines and sailors were swimming towards Inu’s ship and his crew threw them ropes. They managed to haul most of them out of the water before a massive school of five foot long fish showed up and unceremoniously ate the unfortunate souls that were still in the water. Inu signaled Churro and he went aboard Waymer’s ship with both crews and every available sailor started shooting at the waterlogged crew of number three. It wasn’t long before they capitulated to Churro and Waymer’s demands to throw down their soggy weapons and raise their hands.
Lewis obtained the radio from Telini. “Two thirty five, come in.”
“This is two thirty five, go ahead.”
“The party’s over, many thanks.”
“What? No wreckage.”
Lewis hollered at Inu. “Can we save her?” and pointed at the burning ship, Inu just shook his head.
“One coming your way,” Lewis told Morris.
“Copy that, we’ve got work to do, two thirty five out.”
“Romeo out.”
“Romeo. This is the defender ship, Solution.” A new voice said.
“Go ahead, Solution.”
“Commander Flagg wants to know if you have time for a post op analysis. The captains are invited.”
“I’ll ask. Call you back in a few minutes. Romeo out.”
Lewis went to Inu to tell him what the commander said. They helped Inu stand and he signaled Churro and Waymer, and then told Lewis that they would all leave their second mates in charge and attend the meeting.