"Fire!" The whispered command came over the radio hardly sounded the way Felicity expected. It sounded almost as afraid and vulnerable as it did powerful.
Felicity's own rendition held none of the same vulnerability. Instead, as she spun around the line and dropped her arm, her voice conveyed excitement, anticipation, and even glee as she shouted out "Fire!"
To her delight, her men responded with as much excitement as she felt. To be sure, many of them were also terrified of the odds they faced, but to their credit they faced their likely deaths with a gusto that made her proud.
Felicity's arm had barely touched her side before Velvet Dagger's forty-eight guns fired in a rolling crescendo of destruction that was joined by twenty-four of Velvet Dagger's sisters-in-arms.
On the port side, a British man-of-war caught between the Velvet Dagger and Queen's Revenge practically blew apart as both sides of the warship's hull were first blasted inwards then almost immediately outwards by the crisscrossing fire. Gaping holes appeared in the hull and fires flared into existence at many of the places the shells struck. Screams of injured and dying men could be heard even above the roar of the winds.
To the starboard, another British ship fared only slightly better, a result of the lighter fire from the smaller pirate on the far side of the British vessel. It too had several holes blasted through the hull and small fires burned throughout the ship.
Splinters of burning wood sprayed Velvet Dagger's sides but most bounced harmlessly off. A few larger pieces did pierce the hull but the damage control crews were ready. Still the shudder that nearly knocked some men off their feet and forced Felicity to tighten her grip on the line meant that at least one of their ally's guns was not aimed as low as it should have been.
Could be worse, Felicity thought to herself with a wry shrug. Fighting this close we are lucky we didn't take ourselves out of the sky. Outwardly, she called out. "Get those guns reloaded. I want them ready to fire again before we are through the lines. Fire the rifles. Don't give them the chance to get their breath."
On both sides of the deck, her "marines," the men and women of her boarding crew, raised their heads above the railing and took aim. At her sergeant's command, every other person on each side fired. Several seconds later the Sergeant ordered the second volley as the first hid behind the rail and reloaded.
The effect was devastating. Sailors and damage control crews on both enemy vessels flanking the Velvet Dagger died as they ran to their stations. Felicity could hear the screams of the injured even over the winds pounding the ship. Despite herself, Felicity felt sympathy for them. She knew many of them were pressed into the British navy unwillingly or had enlisted simply to try and better their lives.
That sympathy had its limits, however; especially when those very same people had been planning on killing her, her husband, her friends, and her crew tomorrow.
Then Velvet Dagger's cannons fired once more, a rolling thunder that rolled from bow to stern as the guns on both sides hurled fire into both enemy ships.
This volley proved too much for the ship on Velvet Dagger's port side. Already in tatters, it could not survive the explosion that resulted when a shell found one of the magazines. The battered warship fell from the sky in a slow, graceful spiral of flaming death.
The British ship on the starboard was also burning in many places. At least two masts lay smoldering across the deck, and a third hung limply from her side, held only by rigging and sagging pipes. Even as Felicity watched, it broke free and fell out of sight.
At least a couple of the gun crews of that ship, the H.M.S. Determination, finally reached their posts and were able to return fire, though it came sporadically. The pirate ship on the far side of Determination rocked as she took a pair of hits to her sides.
The Velvet Dagger also shuddered as she took a hit near the stern. Felicity was forced to hold on tightly to her line to avoid falling. Many of her crew had to pick themselves up from where they were thrown across the deck. A couple of her men were less fortunate and their screams tore at her heart.
The back half of Velvet Dagger's gun crews answered in kind and the Determination's entire port bow section shattered under their fury.
"Get the injured below," Felicity shouted. She was about to order the helmsman to bring them about starboard when a series of explosions rocked the Determination sending debris flying towards the Velvet Dagger and her crew. Felicity released her hold on the line and jumped down taking cover behind the base of the mast.
When she looked up she saw her crew on the deck had likewise taken cover, and only a few suffered minor injuries. She glanced over in the direction of the Determination and saw that only a burning carcass of the battered British ship remained.
"Clean this mess off my deck, and form up with the remains of our fleet!" she ordered with an exhilarated smile. "The battle isn't over yet!"
And then they were through the line.
YOU ARE READING
Brass Skies Vol. 1: The Battle of Chesapeake
Science Fiction"Declaring our Independence From the British One Airship at a Time." The colonies tried to protest once. They were brutally and ruthlessly crushed by the Red Coats. Now, no one thinks of rebelling. Not when the British have forts all throughout t...
