“Captain, we are detecting three warships approaching the convoy! Five kilometers away and decreasing!”
“Identification?”
“Unknown sir, they do not appear to be of any known configuration.”
“Can you find the frequency they are communicating on?”
“I am trying sir.”
I have a bad feeling about this. We are guarding supply ships that transport valuable equipment for the frontlines. WE can’t let anyone stop us from reaching our goal.
“Sir, they are using a very high frequency, I doubt we could match it.”
“Sir we are being hailed by the lead ship.”
“Put it through.”
[This is commander Mehmed of the AB Moloch, power down your ships and surrender yourselves. You have thirty minutes.]
“They cut the signal sir.”
“Damn it. Red alert! Battlestations!”
Sirens can be heard echoing through the steel corridors of the ship. Footsteps of the crew sounding like a violent tempest. I guess this will be their first battle in a while, everyone got tired from babysitting supply ships.
“Sir, the warships are three kilometers away now!”
“What is that on the horizon?”
Three gigantic floating objects can be seen approaching from the northeast. They seem to be the three warships we’ve detected. They don’t look like anything like I’ve seen before, an Ironbound ship is the closest approximation, but the crew apparently aren’t, and those aren’t Ironbound classifications. They float close to the surface, yet they don’t have any balloon to lift them up.
“They’ve entered our gun range sir. Shall we open fire?”
“Standby.”
The ships look almost alive, like scorpions without their tail. They have two large claw-like structures on the front and a round body with armor almost like scales. There seem to be no windows, nor any extrusions for that matter. The surfaces are smooth and shine brightly under the Vastira. I see no weak points for now, the closest thing are probably the claws but we do not know what purpose they serve.
“Sir, the ships just entered our scanner range. We are detecting massive energy readings emanating from the ships!”
“Attention all batteries, target the claw-like structures on the ship’s bows and fire on my mark.”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“Mark!”
At that moment, thunder could be heard as all the main and secondary batteries facing the starboard side lit up. The smoke which was released blocked the view for some time.
“Status report!”
“Unclear sir! We cannot gain any information from all of the energy readings the ships emanate.”
The smoke finally clears and it reveals that the ships haven’t even been scratched. To everyone’s shock they seemed to be approaching even faster. They are now no more than a kilometer away from us and have focused on the lead ship of the convoy.
“Sir, they are transmitting on all frequencies now.”
[This is your last chance! Surrender now and we will spare you!]
“Never!”
The horizon has been dyed red from whatever was activated on those ships. We haven’t seen anything like these. Are these the only ships of this class? Can they even be called ships? There are two bright flares on the tips of the claws that weren’t there a moment ago.
The red sky briefly returned to the normal blue, but not for long as immediately after the sky was engulfed in crimson. A deeper tone than before but also brighter at the same time. There was a large crimson beam of light which stretched for kilometers, from the enemy warship to the lead ship and beyond. The discharge of energy produced a sound so deafening that it could surely be heard across the globe.
“Can someone tell me what happened?”
“Sir, the lead ship… It’s obliterated… No survivors…”
“By the gods…”
After the smoke and steam cleared, we could clearly see that the lead ship had a gargantuan hole pierced in the middle of it. Most of the superstructure was molten and water seeping from the reservoirs was boiling upon contact with the hull. A hissing sound could be heard before the sky turned red again.
“Fire the cannons yet again!” I ordered.
The smoke rose yet again, but now it sounded like a fart compared to the sound of that thing.
“Sir, we scored a hit! We seem to have disabled one of the claw-like features on the lead ship!”
“Finally some good news. Can you analyze anything now?”
“It looks like the energy output decreased a bit after our strike, the claws are creating those beams.”
“Attention all batteries, target the claw features exclusively, and prepare for another salvo.”
Moments later the sky turned crimson again, we didn’t know who would be next but we did know that someone was going to die today. One of the supply ships was hit, and subsequently obliterated. At this rate, we would be lucky to just escape this situation.
The other two enemy warships have begun to face the other ships in our convoy. They are charging now.
“Target the other claw of the lead ship and fire on my mark.”
“Mark!”
The smoke rises yet again.
“Sir, we have disabled another claw of the lead ship. It looks like it cannot fire its weapons now.”
The other two warships suddenly shift their focus from the other ships to us. Seems as if we’ve attracted their attention.
“Open the channel to the fleet.”
“Open, sir.”
“Attention, we have found a weak point in the attacker's ships, it’s the claw-like features protruding from their bows. Target that and it should disable their weapons.”
“Now switch to the intercom.”
“This is it men, abandon ship. There is nothing we can do anymore. Save your lives if you can, board the escape airboats.”
The sky turned crimson yet again, the last time for me and all I could see was bright crimson light enveloping everything around me. It is over.