The sea was now calm.
But floating on it was a mass filled with rage and fury. But now adding to her emotions was, confusion.
Reaching up for his chair, Captain Rhys pulled himself up from the floor he was now laying on, letting loose a grunt as his body lightly ached from the action. "R—,report."
In the bridge and outside on the deck, everyone was on the floor struggling to get back up and recover. Sailors who were already up were quick to assist their comrades who were still on the floor. "Captain, are we alive still?" Lieutenant Rose questioned as he stood back up on the opposite end of the bridge.
"I would believe so," The captain answered. "Considering we're still standing on the bridge. Get me a status update."
Despite having been hit by a monstrous sized wave, the battleship Indomitable had held up and survived. While bearing battle scars from her previous battle, she was still seaworthy. But now she was surrounded by endless ocean. No trace of the storm or any land present. Not even the fighters or battleships previously pursuing her. She was now completely alone.
"Captain, we've sustained minor damage on the deck and suffered minimal casualties. We've however taken aboard 300 sailors from the destroyers, from which one of the captains survived. Engines rooms are reporting maximum efficiency and radar is tracking zero contacts."
"Zero contacts? Where are those battleships that were pursuing us?" Looking around their surroundings visually, there was nothing but ocean stretched out all the way to the horizon. No sign of ships or aircraft. Not even the storm was present any longer.
"Unknown sir, they're just gone." Lieutenant Rose responded as he continued looking out with binoculars and requesting updates from the radar room. "This doesn't make sense. Even in such rough waves they would've tracked and followed us. So where are they?"
This wasn't sitting well with the captain who was growing concerned by the absence of pursuing ships or aircraft. "Check the radar, make sure it's actually working nominally and is not busted. Also can we can a plane up in the air? I want them to conduct a fly around our surroundings and report back."
"Affirmative sir, I'll call up engineers and get two pilots set up. Also I might want to report to the medical bay. The surviving captain from one of the destroyers wishes to speak with you sir."
"I'll be on my way. You have the bridge lieutenant."
The captain exited the bridge and left Lieutenant Rose in command until he returned. Traversing along the side of the superstructure the captain was able to identify the damage they sustained. Fortunately it was light with some of the safety railings ripped off and much of the wooden deck now missing exposing the layers of steel underneath. Casualty count, about seven sailors were killed while another eight were injured and being lifted on stretchers to be transferred to the medical bay within the ship.
The medical bay was built with easy access as one of the armored steel doors established on the superstructure lead down into the hull where the medical bay was. It was this door he arrived at to open and walk inside to a chaotic scene.
The medical bay was packed and over crowded with sailors from the destroyers they rescued who were in various states of condition. Some were suffering from mild concussions while some were on beds being tended to by male doctors and female nurses, and only female crew members aboard the ship. Many had noticeable bandages wrapped around their arms, legs, or head to cover up injuries they sustained from the attack.
Among the wounded was one man who noticed the captain and stood up revealing a bloody cast on his left arm and a bandage wrapped around his fore, with a lightly torn and bloodied officer's uniform. "Captain Rhys!" He called out raising his good arm to catch the captain's attention. Rhys noticed and acknowledged the man, approaching the bed where he was settled on.
"Name and rank?"
"James Madison sir. Former, captain of the destroyer Pegasus. I hold my thanks to you for stopping and picking me and my men up from the waters rather than leaving us to the sharks. We're in debt to you, and our loyalty falls to you sir."
"Understood. I was informed you wanted to speak to me about something." Rhys responded. "Would this be in regards to our current situation?"
"Aye, we're without a ship of our own. And this battleship can hold only one captain, being you. I would request my men find suitable work aboard your ship, make ourselves useful rather than just stand around like civilian refugees."
"I see. We'll work something out eventually, but in the meantime we have other agendas to focus on. Right now you and your men need to recover from our previous ordeal, then we'll figure out about assignments for them."
"Aye, I can agree with that. We'll follow you till the end of times. Not like we have much choice regarding our past actions."
The battleship still had over 3,000 sailors to crew her and 500 marines dwelling within their quarters within her hull. However now she was carrying over 300 rescued sailors and officers from the two destroyers that followed her and perished via air attacks. While she had the quarters to accommodate them, they would need to rework the station assignments for the whole crew to integrate them into operating the ship. That would take time, but for now the captain has other agendas to focus on. Such as figuring out where the hell they are and if they're safe?
With that taken care of, the captain exited the medical bay and resurfaced on the damaged deck of the ship. Men were already sorting through broken pieces of wood lying about and trying to salvage and repair damaged safety railing, or cut them off if unrepairable. Some men were still manning their AA guns, keeping their eyes to the sky as if they were expecting another air attack. Hopefully that would not be the case as they got lucky last time. The Indomitable was never designed to fight off against an entire air wing on her own. Usually she would have cruisers, destroyers, and even other battleships to bolster her defenses and screen her from aircraft. However she was on her own now, and another air attack like the one before would cripple if not disable her. That Captain Rhys wanted to avoid as much as possible, doing what was best to keep the crew and ship alive for now.
From the near, one of the catapults with a floatplane attached to it angled outwards and shot off an FP-80C Heron. The FP-80C Heron was a two seater naval inverted-gull winged aircraft used in scouting and CAS is necessary. The aircraft used a full aluminum airframe with a length of ten meters, a wingspan of thirteen meters, and a height of five meters. It relied on an 18 cylinder radial engine providing over 2,000 horsepower for a top speed of 800 km/h and a service ceiling of over 12,000 meters. Armed with six 13mm wing mounted machine guns and capable of carrying two 450 kilogram bombs, the Heron was a reliable aircraft, and the Indomitable had four with two stowed away in it's hanger, one on the other catapult, and one airborne.
Returning to the bridge, the captain went along the exterior catwalk that wrapped out the sides and front of the bridge, grabbing a pair of binoculars to visually inspect the horizons himself.
"Captain, we've determined that the allied warships and aircraft are no longer in our area. Radar is working fine and has not picked up anything 100 kilometers from us." Lieutenant Rose reported. "Should we get moving again, try and figure out where we are?"
"I assume that's a better decision than sitting out here in the middle of nowhere." Rhys answered. "Send us north and we'll proceed onward. Get as faraway from the south as we can. Hopefully we'll avoid any enemy or allied patrols while finding land we can lay low near."
"Aye captain."
The ship's turbines were reengaged and she propelled forward, turning the port to match her direction with north and proceeded in a straight course at 28 knots. North was beyond the nominal operations of allied and enemy naval activities and had several, not as powerful, neutral nations they could hopefully make contact with and pray not shoot them on sight. Right now their resources were finite, and they needed a reliable solution or they would be done for, and all their effort up till this moment would've all been for nothing.
Crew remained on edge, scanning the skies and horizons in search of any ships or aircraft sent to hunt them down. Everyone was anxious after the last battle, however hours past and not a single ship or plane appeared on visual or radar resulting in everyone who was capable to return to their normal stations. The ship and her occupants were at last granted a brief moment of peace, but it didn't last long as two hours later things would begin to heat up again starting from the bridge.
"Captain, radar surface contacts detected eighty kilometers direct north! Tracking ten contacts!" Lieutenant Rose suddenly alerted to the captain as the radars were now tracking something.
"Your assumptions?"
"Possible an allied international waters patrol fleet or a neutral navy fleet. Possibly even just civilians, no way to be sure at this point. Should we issue general quarters?"
"Affirmative. Sound the ship back to general quarters and have all guns at the ready again. We're not taking any chances.
"Aye captain!"
The alarms blared out again as crew who were just getting used to the peace and quiet raced back to the armories to retrieve their helmets and man their battle stations. The guns were now back up and running as gunners manned their seats and loaders armed the guns with readily available ammunition. The ship was once again ready to fight, though she hoped she didn't need to and could conserve her ammo for more juicier targets. The float place sent out hours ago was back aboard, having landed in the water and recovered via an extendable crane built into the ship, so they had no aircraft in the air to send and visually identify the unknown contacts.
The ship sailed on, keeping at 28 knots for over an hour before coming into visual range of whatever has caught attention on their radar. Smoke was billowing out from the horizon being evidence of a ship at sea, and soon they found ships, but none of which they were expecting.
"Multiple ships spotted on the horizon! Counting seven afloat while three are burning wrecks!" A lookout shouted as he saw what was apparently a battle taking place ahead of them. "They're firing at each other and inflicting damage! Cannot make out classification or type, they look like outdated warships!"
In battle were what looked like pre-dreadnought era warships which matched outdated qualifications for a battleship or cruiser. Five grey hulled and five white hulled vessels made up the ten ships in total, with three of the white hulled ships burning and sinking into the waters. Both sides were firing on each other from a kilometer out with their guns and inflicting damage, with the grey hulls winning. What was odd is the flags the ships were waving matched neither the allies, enemies, or neutral nations the crew of the Indomitable were familiar with. Though what nation would even think to use such small and outdated warships?
"Captain, your orders?" The helmsman asked as the ship continued to approach the battle at 28 knots and holding. If they didn't break off or change course they would be sailing right through the middle of the cross fire.
"Hold course, and bring us within three kilometers from the battle. We'll circle them and see what we can learn. If any of them shoot with the intent to hit us we'll intervene."
"Aye captain!"
The Indomitable approached the fight, before pulling to starboard and engaging in a circle maneuver around the unknown ships as she observed them from a distance, waiting for the ships to acknowledge her presence and either take action or proceed in their current fight against each other. Upon getting closer, it was clearly noticeable how much smaller these warships were compared to the indomitable, about 100 meters each. The white hulls were seen with two fully enclosed single barreled main batteries and eight exposed secondary guns with many other smaller guns, while the grey hulls had four fully enclosed single barreled main batteries and eight exposed secondary guns with many other smaller guns. They were all dwarfed by the Indomitable in both size and firepower.
"Sir, one of the grey ships has disengaged and is adjusting it's heading towards us!" A spotter shouted as one of the grey ships pulled from the battle and steamed towards the massive battleship. Another one of the white hulls was now sinking leaving the remaining one damaged and on fire.
"Stand by warning shot from 203," Captain Rhys ordered. "If they get within one kilometer from us fire off near their bow." Unfortunately they wouldn't be firing first as the grey ship adjusted it's forward guns at the Indomitable and fired.
"Shots fire! Incoming on the way!" Two shell arched up towards the battleship but both missed by forty meters, plunging straight into the water instead.
"Confirmed shots fired, sir the ship just fired at us with two shots!"
"Bring up forward main batteries! Arm all barrels and prepare a return fire!"
The three massive turrets at the bow of the Indomitable traversed left and aimed at the single ship that just fired at them, 432mm shells loaded and ready. It was then that the grey hull ship seemed to realize it's mistake as it pulled to port to either break off the attack or to swing it's rear guns around to shoot them. Either way it wouldn't have the chance as the guns were lined up.
"Turret one, fire single!"
One of the barrels of turret one blew out a humongous cloud of fire and smoke and let loose and ear shattering 'BOOM' firing a single 1,500 kilogram shell towards the smaller ship that fired upon them. The projectile connected, tearing through layers of steel and twisting metal before detonating deep within in a devastating explosion.
The resulting force literally cracked the ship like an egg, breaking apart it's hull and blowing pieces of it's belt armor off, splitting the ship in two while setting off secondary explosions from cooking off munitions before the two half's would sink to the bottom of the ocean.
This caught the attention of the other four grey hulled ships as they turned away from the injured white hull and advanced towards the Indomitable to engage and attack her in revenge of their sibling. Doing so only spelt their demise as the massive guns targeted them as well.
Turret two fired next, shooting out another shell in similar fashion of turret one as she unleashed a black cloud of smoke and fire resulting in the sound of thunder so loud it generated a shockwave powerful enough to kick up a tidal wave from the water beneath it. The resulting shot was another hit as the shell tore into the ship's bow and hit the forward magazine, creating two massive explosions that ripped the bow apart into twisted steel and scrap metal, dooming it's fate below the waves.
The three remaining ships returned fire and unleashing a joint barrage from their forward batteries. Three shells missed but three hit, impacting on the belt armor, deck, and turret face doing almost no damage. Whatever caliber these guns were they were insufficient to even penetrate through the ship's armor.
Responding in kind, the Indomitable fired from turret three and one simultaneously. Turret three hit and struck it's target while turret one missed and splashed into the water near it's target.
The two remaining intact ships turned to starboard and unveiled their secondary guns, firing towards the Indomitable in another joint volley and dealing only minimal damage to the superstructure. The crew manning the AA guns and secondary guns did not take kindly to this and returned fire.
The 152mm and 203mm guns aimed down at the smaller battleships and opened fire, unleashing a hailstorm as turret two fired another shot. The combined firepower was enough to quickly disable and and destroy the last remaining hostile warships as they slowly plunged below the sea, with sailors who survived the battle jumping into the water off the ships now sinking wrecks.
"All targets destroyed captain! Awaiting further orders!" Lieutenant Rose reported as the guns ceased firing and the sea returned to silence. All the grey hulled warships were now sinking and the one white hulled warship was barely keeping itself afloat. Whoever they were they were more focused on trying to save their ship rather than worry about the giant battleship that may have just saved their lives from certain doom.
"Bring us about 200 meters from the unknown warship, and make attempts to contact them. I wanna know who exactly they are."
"Aye captain."
The massive battleship picked up on her speed and turned to port to line up alongside the white ship's starboard side and make contact with it's inhabitants. This immediately caught their full attention as they noticed the Indomitable approaching their ship and made ready for battle stations, incase this ship decided to attack them next. Although the shooting fortunately never came.
Instead, both ships came up along each other with the Indomitable easily dwarfing the smaller battleship with it's sheer mass and volume. It at first shocked the white ship's inhabitants who've probably never yet seen such a massive warship.
"Try and signal them." Captain Rhys ordered as the spotter on the side platform of the bridge began flashing the signal map in Morse code to try and communicate with them. Oddly however they received no response back with the other ship's occupants continuing to stare at them as they pulled aboard survivors from the other fallen warships that were on their side.
"No response sir. Either they're unable to respond in Morse or they don't understand us."
"Then we'll have to try something else. Ready me a boat and prepare two marines. I'm going over to make contact with them myself." Captain Rhys announced. "Lieutenant you have command of the ship until I return."
"Are you sure sir? For all we know this could be a trap to capture one of our men or you and demand ransom." Lieutenant Rose explained his concern. "I especially don't like how we weren't able to contact them via signal lamp."
"I understand your concern lieutenant. Which is why you'll keep and eye on me, and if anything goes wrong…remind them who has the bigger guns here."
"Aye captain."
From the side of the superstructure, a crane was extended outward and readied a PT boat leveled with the deck for the captain, two marines, and it's crew to board and make preparations to venture to the unknown ship.
The PT-1000 patrol-torpedo boat was used extensively by the navy in offshore patrols and was capable of defending itself against larger surface targets and airborne targets. With a length of 25 meters, a beam of 6 meters, a draft of 1 meter, and a displacement of 60 tons, the ship was powered by three 1,500 horsepower 12-cylinder gasoline engines allowing it to accelerate at 42 knots. Armed with four 550mm torpedo tubes and one twin 20mm anti-aircraft battery the boat was well armed for it's size.
Climbing aboard, the boat was extended out and lowered into the water via it's crane before it was detached and let loose, allowing the smaller craft to pull away from the Indomitable and make for the smaller battleship.
Upon getting within fifty meters from the unknown battleship, they were able to make out better detail as the, lightly damaged, white hull was decorated with golden decal that resembled vines wrapping around the hull, with a large blue jewel embedded in the bow. The super structure, except the smock stacks, were made or painted with gold as well. It looked rather regal for a warship as if it's designers and builders wanted it to look flashy. But why? The flag waving from it's bent mast was a turquoise blue with a navy blue circle and a yellow tree in the center.
"What and odd ship," The commanding officer of the PT noted. "Why would one want to invest time making a ship for war look flashy? Honestly a waste of time and precious resources."
"Agreed," Captain Rhys responded. "Whoever they are they have an oddly unorthodox design for ship building. Bring us about their side."
The smaller PT boat came up alongside the battleship and came to a stop below the ship's occupants. The battleship's draught was only three meters so the captain didn't have to look too far up to meet the faces of the sailors staring down at him and his men.
"This is Captain Rhys hailing from the battleship Indomitable, requesting permission to board your vessel and make contact!" The Captain announced using the boat's loudspeakers to ensure the ship's crew heard him and his intentions.
Moments later, a response came through as one of the crew members leaned out from the safety railings and cupped their hands towards the captain and his men. "Permission granted!" A feminine voice shouted as a net was lowered off the side of the hull for them to climb up.
Inching towards the net, it was one of the marines who would climb first as he grabbed ahold of the fiber construct and climbed up, followed by his comrade and then the captain behind them. Reaching the top, the three men climbed over the railings and set foot on the deck where they met face to face with the crew of the unknown ship.
At first they looked like ordinary humans, however upon closer inspection the captain noticed something was off and unusual about them. First to notice was their sharp facial features and jawline hidden beneath strains of long hair. Did they not have any hair length regulations? What was also noticeable was most of the crew were female with some males among them, with lean skinny arms with visible muscle underneath. Lastly was their ears. Unlike normal humans ears, which were usually round, their ears were pointed. Who the hell were these people?
"You…you are the captain of that massive ship?" A voice questioned as one of the occupants, not in uniform like the others but in a flowy green dress with silver lining around the base a sleeves, asked. Like the others she had sharp features and elongated pointy ears.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm the captain. We came up to investigate a disturbance taking place here before we spotted your ship engaged with the ones with grey hulls." Captain Rhys answered. "Who might you be?"
"I am Princess Vyan Hersalor of the Elven Kingdom, and I extend my gratitude to you and your crew for the timely assistance." The supposed princess gave a short bow to the captain, thanking him and his men for their efforts. "But I must ask, your ship and flag is unlike any I've seen before. Tell me, where did you come from?"
Looking back, the captain looked up at the flag of the once proud nation he served for waving atop the mast with all the radar antennas. They would have to do something about that flag some other time. Turning back, he acknowledged what this princess said, especially in regards to her being of this Elven Kingdom and seeming unfamiliar with the nation Rhys once served. How could this be? Surely everyone across the world knew about his people as they were formerly the dominant faction of the world. Unless…
"Our origins are…complicated, and we now sail with no nation to represent." It was true as their government betrayed and surrendered against their enemy while aiming their guns at them when they resisted the order to surrender. It was funny, baring no teeth towards their enemies but showing three full rows towards one of their own ships. "We're now a lone vessel and have by luck stumbled upon the battle you were engaged in."
"I see, perhaps then you came from the other side of the world, where no know ship has ever ventured before." Princess claimed with subtle fascination. "But I never before heard of a lone, nationless ship. How long have you been on your own?"
"Less than a day. We just encountered a large storm after fighting a battle for our freedom and were enveloped by a large wave that covered our entire ship. Then, we woke up in the middle of nowhere." The captain explained to the best of his ability to recall the previous events that lead to their current situation. "These waters are unfamiliar to us and we need somewhere to offload and care for several wounded we have aboard."
Looking back at the, gargantuan battleship, the princess and her compatriots noticed the battle scars along her superstructure and hull not inflicted by the ships that attacked them previously. What kind of fight did this monster get into before it's previous battle.
"I understand your predicament captain," Princess Vyan said to the human. "However we've also taken serious damage and suffered multiple injuries ourself. However I cannot ignore your deed coming to our rescue. Once we get our ship operational again we'll head for Esho Nalore to make repairs and hopefully provide aid to your injured."
"No objection your highness," Captain Rhys responded. "Not like we have anything better to do than sail aimlessly until our supplies drain. If you want we can send available engineers to assist with repairs."
"Any help will be appreciated captain. Thank you."