Out of Space

Chapter 496: Mighty Venny

Three 14" projectiles burst out of the 18 meters long barrels in a cloud of smoke and thunderous roar. The turrets mounted in the middle of the 'Battleship' section of the tri hulled super carrier was a level higher than the cleared and secured armored flight decks. All four turret's barrels were over Flight Deck B which was the starboard side of the super carrier and firing over the reinforced decks designed to handle the shock waves from the guns.

After Number One Gun fired, Number Two followed, and so on. In a matter of seconds, twelve 14" high explosive projectiles weighing 578 kilograms of pure destruction were travelling at velocities of over 860 meters per second spun their way across the expanse of the ocean, taking 7.2 seconds before slamming down to the unsuspecting encampment.

From the distance, the gun observers on the pagoda bridge could see clouds of smoke and dirt erupting into the skies before the thunder of the explosions came rolling over. Seconds later, Number One Gun roared again, followed by the rest and the island was carpeted with explosions.

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17th Suugon Royal Wing Warriors Camp

Nhak was spooning out a bowl of hot soup mixed with bits of unidentified meat, greens, and grains from the communal pot. The higher ups had finally distributed the rations when the camp was built. Now together with dozens of others, Nhak finally managed to enjoy a hot meal instead of cold and foraged rations.

As he was enjoying his meal, a shrieking cry grew louder and louder, and like many others, he tilted his head up to the skies in confusion as he sought the source of the sound. A sudden massive boom shattered the camp and flung Nhak forward and face down into the dirt. The ground shook as if the Gods were stomping the land and Nhak no longer could hear anything as he laid flat down on the ground his the air in his lungs knocked out.

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Goblin Sea, UNS Vengeance, Bridge

"Sir!" An observer called out. "We got movements from the parked air fleet! They are starting to move!"

"Direct the guns to the airships!" The Captain replied. "Destroy their airships and they will be stranded on the island with nowhere to run!"

"Aye, aye!"

The Weapons Officer quickly relayed the orders down and guided by the recon plane circling above the clouds which helped spot the guns. The turrets slowly and majestically turned their barrels towards the far distance and seemed to quiver in excitement before with a mightly roar, all the guns fired a salvo together.

Commander Ford standing behind a mounted pair of high powered binoculars could barely track the flight of the projectiles until they hit something. He saw the telltale rainbow glitter from the distance before balls of flames appeared over the island.

"Dragon Eye reports direct hit on enemy airship!" A radio operator called out. "Secondaries explosions spotted!"

"Switch target!" The Captain ordered. "Keep pounding them!"

The guns made adjustments before thundering again. The power of twelve guns firing salvos at the same time barely rocked the super carrier due to its tri hull stability, but tremors could be felt. Again, the projectiles took over 7 seconds to reach their target, and the enemy felt the effects of their power.

"Commander Ford!" Peter called out from his tactical plot table. "Attack squadrons are en route back for resupply. They report mission success, three airships down, one crippled and over thirty confirmed dragon kills. We lost two planes to anti air fire, no survivors."

"Damn it..." Ford let out a curse. "Alright, get them back onboard than rearm for anti ship combat and be on the standby to chase down any runners."

"Aye, aye!" Peter returned back to his station and started issuing commands to the deck crew to began recovery operations.

The port side of the super carrier, Flight Deck A, started clearing as crew members made way for the returning aircraft. Arresting wires were deployed while Landing Signals Officers started to guide the aircraft in one by one.

Soon, a dot appeared over the horizon and grew larger and larger until the winged shape of a Sea Cobra appeared. The pilot dropped its speed and flared the aircraft, an arresting hook dangling off its tail, snagged the first arresting cable deployed across the flight deck and was brought to a violent halt.

Deck crew quickly rushed over and moved the landed aircraft away, making space for the next in the line to land while the main guns in the central 'Battleship' section continued its salvos at the enemy.

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Skull Squadron

Lt Foy kept his eye on the side of the fast approaching flight deck, while the Landing Signals Officer gave instructions over the radio, guiding him in. The Optical Landing System that Lt Foy had his eye on was showing an amber light and in line with a row of green lights. This meant that his angle of approach was correct.

The OLS consisted of a series of lights and fresnel lenses mounted to a gyroscopically stabilized platform. The lenses focus the light into narrow beams that are directed into the sky at various angles. If the amber light appears above the green lights, the plane is coming in too high; if the amber light appears below the green lights, the plane is coming in too low. If the plane is coming in way too low, the pilot will see red lights.

As his aircraft hit the decks, Lt Foy pushed his engine power to full power instead of reducing power. This was to allow him to continued to have enough speed to take off again if his tailhook miss to snag any of the four arresting wire laid out across the flight deck.

Luckily, his tailhook snagged one of the arresting wires and he gritted his teeth as his Viper slammed to a halt. He let out a sigh as his plane came to a stop without any incident and he powered down his engines while the deck crew started moving his aircraft to the side to be secured and rearm and refuelled for the next mission.

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17th Suugon Royal Wing Warriors Camp

Nhak crawled to his feet, his ears ringing and his vision blurry. He rubbed his ears, trying to rid the ringing and found his hands covered in blood. He struggled to his feet and found the camp in a state of chaos and fear.

The cooking pot where he had earlier scooped his bowl of soup had long been knocked over from its stand, the contents of the pot seeping into the dirt. He looked up from the pot and saw the rest of the camp or what remained of the rest of the camp.

Several massive smoking craters had appeared out of nowhere. The storage tents where he went to collect his allocated supplies and equipment were no longer in sight. The rows of tents where he and many other warriors spent a quarter of the day setting up were gone. The commander's tentage with the proud Dragon Flag of the Suugon Empire was gone.

Gone were the wooden barricades and towers. What remained were confused warriors wandering around lifelessly and covered in a layer of grey dirt and ash. The ringing in his ear slowly disappeared and what replaced the ringing were screams of pain and suffering. That was when he noticed the ground around the craters were littered with bits and pieces of body parts. There were also many bodies littering the remains of the camp, their cause of death unknown as they seemed to have no sign of injuries on their bodies.

"RETREAT! RETREAT!" A rider on a clearly spooked drake waving a yellow command flag came soaring over the camp. "TO THE CAVES! NOW!"

Most of the warriors stared dumbly at the commands, their minds too shell shock to respond when another ripple of explosions shook them out of their daze. Frightened out of their wits, the soldiers turned into a mob as they rushed away screaming in fear towards the fire mountain.

Nhak stared dumbstruck at the balls of flames rising from the moored airships in the distance, the bright flicking shields and explosions catching his attention. "Wha- What kind of forbidden magic is this?!"

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Goblin Sea, UNS Vengeance, Bridge

"Enemy airships are scattering!" The reports came in from the crew as Commander Ford continued viewing the battle from the observation deck. "Six, no, nine... Sixteen airships have split up into four groups!"

"Designate them, A to D!" The Captain of the Vengeance ordered. "Guns to target Group A!"

"Aye, aye! Designating enemy groups A to D!"

Commander Ford stepped away from the binocular stand and asked the CAG, "How long more for the squadrons to rearm and refuel?"

"Another 20 minutes," Peter replied as he checked the board. "Then another 15 minutes to launch and regroup."

Commander Ford nodded before he turned to the Captain. "Keep taking out those airships... We don't need to capture any intact!"

The Captain nodded back before he turned and yell at his crew. "You heard the CNO! Blow those airships off the sky!"

20 minutes later, the fighter and attack squadrons formed up on the flight deck again and were launched off in pairs, clearing the flight decks of aircraft rapidly. The Sea Cobras carrying the same loadout and even the Vipers had swapped out their 70 mm rocket pods for 127 mm heavy rockets.

The circling fighter attackers circled in the air until all planes had taken off before forming into their attack formations and charged off towards the airships that were trying head towards the UNS Vengeance in several directions.

"The enemy airships seemed to have found our position," Commander Ford commented as he watched the movements of the enemy via radar. He tapped on the screen and said, "That group of four there must be either supply ships or the ships of the fleet commander."

"CAG, direct two squadrons to take down that group," Commander Ford ordered as he pointed out which target he wanted. "If it's just supply transports, destroy them all the same."

Peter nodded and he started giving orders over to the pilots. Ford rubbed his hands together and said, "That leaves us a dozen of airships to kill."

"Eleven, Sir," The Captain grinned. "We took down another one."

"Good, good," Ford smiled back. "Eleven airships in three groups against our one ship. I like the odds."

"We are about six kilometres away, so judging by their speed and heading, they will reach the range of our secondaries in roughly half an hour or less?" Ford made a rough estimation. "Plenty of time for our gunners to bring down the numbers more."

"Shall we keep the engagement distance?" The Captain asked. "We got the range to take them down, no point letting them get close to us."

"No point," Ford shook his head and smiled. "Let them come to us, after all, we should be the ones welcoming them to the New World."

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The Swordsman

The raging fires were thankfully put out, but the damage from the cursed flying crosses has destroyed four of its six aerial screws and many of the steering sails of The Swordsman. Two gaping holes large enough for a drake to fly through covered one side of the hull while black smoke and steam escaped out from the holes.

Vice Admiral Zheng Sun gripped the handrails as he looked down at the ruined decks of his warship. Wounded were being carried away while the dead were stacked at one side, to be sorted out later. Repair parties ran up and down, carrying buckets of sand and water. Some even carried components and parts to repair damages.

About a dozen badly winded drakes laid curled up on the open decks as their mother ships had long fallen down from the skies and disappeared into the ocean. Now, his crippled ship could only slowly limp back to base to quickly report their situation and warn them of a powerful foe.

"A- Admiral!" A warrior appeared before Zheng Sun and saluted. "Th- The base camp... It's burning!"

"WHAT?"