Brass Skies vol 2 (Draft)

Hired Gun part 27

As the Robert's Revenge slipped between the enemy ships, the captain's order to fire rang out loudly across the deck and even over the sound of the singing and was relayed below. Within seconds the ship jostled as guns and cannon on both sides fired the first volley. It wasn't perfectly synchronized, but the last cannon fired within four seconds of the first. The rifles and pistols, on the other hand kept up a continuously rolling wave of fire.

On both sides, the sound of splintering wood, loud crashes, and screaming men filled the skies. More than one man was cut down by cannon. Even more succumbed to the gunfire. Asuka saw at least a couple topple off the deck and over the side to hang limply at the end of their safety lines.

At least one British crewmember, however, was blown off the deck when a cannon ball blew through a section of the rail next to him. His eyes widened as he realized his line has been severed, and he screamed as he frantically grabbed for and missed the rigging of the nearest side mast. Beside her, Anna altered her aim slightly and sent a shot through his chest as he fell.

When Asuka glanced at her, Anna shrugged. "Even with what they are doing, I couldn't watch that," the woman explained. "I would hope if that ever happens to me, someone would give me the same mercy."

Although, the two ships were not actively fighting back, the Robert's Revenge did not come out of the pass unscathed. The ship suffered two incidents of friendly fire from the Dancing Yasmine; one shot that somehow passed over the deck of the British bomber unscathed to land on the Revenge killing a half dozen crew and mercenaries and the other miraculously crashing through the far side of the enemy ship and into the rear of the Revenge's gun decks, putting two guns temporarily out of commission due to the loss of parts of their crews

In addition the third British ship was firing their cannon straight down the length of the Revenge. While these shots did not cause any casualties to the crew, it did damage the sails, spars, and rigging on several masts and took a small section out of the forecastle.

However, the Robert's Revenge lived up to its name. As the ship pulled through the line the captain of the third British ship realized Robert's intentions too late.

Even as Robert ordered everyone back from the bow—causing everyone on the forecastle to run towards the stairs leading down to the main deck—the British man-of-war attempted to dodge forward while attempting to swing to the starboard. When it was apparent that would not be enough, the captain tried one last, desperate gamble. Venting the balloons, the British man-o-war began rapidly descending. It was almost enough.

In the end, it would have been better for the British if the Robert's Revenge had been allowed to ram the ship directly. The loss of two or even all three of the side masts and any damage to the hull would have been survivable. Instead, the man-o-war suffered one of the worst fates possible for an airship; a sudden catastrophic collapse of the balloons.

As the Robert's Revenge passed through the area the British ship had occupied, the keel of the pirate ship plowed into top of the man-o-wars balloons, both snagging and compressing them. With the vents already open, this resulted in the majority of the remaining air being driven out of the balloons and long rips opening in them. For a few second's the man-o-war hung form the bottom of the pirate ship, causing the Robert's Revenge to tilt forward at a precarious angle. Then the balloons ripped free, taking a small piece of the keel with it, and the entire British ship plunged from the sky.

Normally, airships could deal with rips in the balloons, or even with a partial collapse of one of the balloons, at least well enough to have time to evacuate. However, with the balloons almost completely deflated and with the sheer size and number of rips, there was no time for this particular ship to evacuate. Within seconds it hit the ground on the outskirts of Germantown and disintegrated into a cloud of debris. Almost immediately, the munitions and the tanks of gas for the massive burners detonated annihilating most of the debris cloud outright and spewing the rest far and wide leaving a massive crater behind. Without having fired a single shot at it, the Robert's Revenge completely destroyed the man-o-war with all hands.

By the time the Robert's Revenge came about, one of the bombers was already falling from the sky in flames. The third lasted a short time longer, but blew apart under the combined bombardment of the three pirate ships when one of the ships managed to put a shot right through the magazine. As the final enemy ship exploded, it sent flaming debris and flying bits of metal and wood into the all three pirate ships. For the most part, it only damaged sales and rigging, but at least two people on the Sword of Phobos were impaled by flying debris.

The battle was over, but now the cleanup started.

Finally, here is Asuka's first airship battle.  Let me know what you think.