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We waited. The TDC said it was just over 2 minutes till the eel hit, but it felt like a year. I had to remind myself to breathe. If this went wrong, we would be in deep trouble.
Kessler counted down the time until the estimated impact, “5... 4... 3... “ A large plume of water erupted around the middle of the destroyer. Then a large flash, and the ship was lifted from the water, bending in two. She settled back onto the water, her two halves slowly drifting apart as they sank. We felt, almost immediately, the rumble of the detonation, followed by a sharp crack. “Impact!” I hissed, muted cheers were exclaimed throughout the boat, “We broke her back, she’s going down!” I stared at the crippled ship for a few moments more. I could see crew desperately trying to reach life boats, or even just the safety of not being on the dying ship. I panned the scope around towards our next target, the battleship. The ships in the convoy were starting to turn sharply, they had begun to perform zig-zag maneuvers in hopes of avoiding the next torpedo. I could almost hear the klaxon alarms going off. I knew exactly how they sounded from my years on the merchant ships I cut my teeth on before joining the Kriegsmarine. “New course, two zero zero,” I called out, not bothering to whisper anymore, “Engines ahead standard, secure from silent running!” “Aye Kaleun!” came multiple replies. The big warship was drawing nearer, it’s crew frantically searching the seas, trying to spot us. We hoped they wouldn’t. Those big main guns, even the smaller secondary guns, would be the same as a bomb going off right next to us if they managed to fire at us. “Open tubes two and four!” I called out. I continued to wait, plotting our intercept in my head. I panned around to the sides, the lead elements of the convoy had already passed our position. I turned back to the Revenge, I couldn’t quite make out exactly which one it was, but the camouflage pattern painted on the side was very distinct. I should be able to identify it later. I panned along the length of the ship, picking out my target points. “Tube 2.... match bearing..... Los! Tube 4..... match bearing..... Los! Open tube 3!” I called out, “Hard to starboard!New course two five zero!” We felt the thumps as the torpedoes raced from their tubes, and the doors closed behind them. They would have to see the trails the gas torpedoes left behind. There’s no way they could miss them, I thought. A few moments passed before a large plume of water erupted under the forward gun battery, soon followed by another one midships. The great battleship lifted and rolled some with the explosions, but continued along her path. The large secondary explosions I had hoped for, ripping her apart, never happened. “Hard to port!” I screamed, trying to get the boat in line for another shot. Crew were running frantically along the battleship’s deck. I couldn’t tell if they were running to battle stations, or trying to abandon. She still looked in too good of shape to abandon. “Rudder amidships!” I yelled out, paused a moment, followed by “Tube 3, match bearing! Los!” I then noticed sailors on the ship pointing in our direction. The were indicating to others farther down the deck, trying to get the attention of an officer it seemed. Apparently they were successful, as I saw the first aft main gun turret start to traverse towards our position. “Scheibe! Scheibe!" I yelled, "Ahead Flank! Hard to starboard! Full Dive!" I should have lowered the scope, but I was mesmerized by those huge barrels swinging towards us. I even raised the scope higher, so it would stay above water longer as we dove. I could hear men yelling orders and running behind me, but I was fixated on those huge guns. They were almost right at us now, we were so close I could actually see right down them, I could even see the rifling on the inside of the barrel. If they fired with any accuracy, we didn’t stand a chance. Another huge water plume erupted right below the turret. The barrels sticking out through the cloud of water looked like a giant dragon poking the tip of it’s nose through a waterfall. Then the dragon breathed. |
Sorry bout the color, since my HDD crashed, I've been typing this out on my laptop using google docs. Apparently google uses black text, little difficult to read :D
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Definitely one of the best stories I have ever read on here. Keep up the good work :yeah:
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Congratz!
Your writing has improved tremendously since you started this story. Excellent metaphor at the end.:salute::salute::salute: |
Ahh thank you all. Wasn't sure if anybody had been reading this, LOL.
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My knees buckled as the boat violently lifted beneath me. I fell down hard, landing on somebody, couldn’t tell who, the lights had gone out. There were screams of pain and panic all around me.
“Damage Report!” I screamed, getting up from the deck. My leg hurt fiercely, I didn’t feel anything break, so I hoped it was just bruised. I tested it, it held. The emergency lights came on. A large explosion was felt through the deck. We all looked each, wide eyed. This was followed by several smaller explosions. “I need a damage report now, Verdammt!” I yelled again, “Helm! What’s our depth?! Take us to scope depth! I need to see!” “Still 12 meters Kaleun! Holding steady! No obvious trim problems! We didn’t have time to start the dive!” The coxswain, Heinrich, called out. Water was streaming in from various locations in the zentrale, but none seemed to be of a critical amount. One pipe was spraying high pressure water into a fine mist. I stepped up to the periscope, I had to see what happened. Water pouring down over my head. I placed my eye’s to the eye piece, it was if I had tried to look through a fish bowl. The seals had blown on the scope! I snapped the handles up, trying to lower it, but the motors just made a grinding noise. “Scheibe!” I muttered. I stepped over to the observation scope. I hoped the crew on that man-o-war would be too busy with damage to notice the larger scope piercing the surface. I raised it slowly, not wanting to damage our only way to see. “Damage report!” I called again. “Sir! The forward torpedo room is flooding!” Yelled a voice. I looked around, it was Schultze, soaked to the bone. “Why aren’t you fixing it then!?” I screamed at him, “You should be back there leading the repairs!” “Yes.... yessir!” he replied. I was glad my pistol was in the safe, for I might have shot him where he stood. He disappeared through the hatch. “Kaleun!” It was Franz this time, “Incidental damage and flooding in most compartments, should be easily contained. Forward Torpedo room is flooding moderately, tubes one and three are the source, they seem to have popped the seals on the doors. Should be fixable.” “OK then,” I said, “let’s get those fixed, any injuries?” “Nothing I noticed sir, but I have Adalbert checking everyone out.” I nodded, and focused on the scope again. I raised it up a bit more, I needed a clear picture on what happened on the surface. I panned around, seemingly panicked merchants were travelling in all directions, no semblance of order was apparent. I then saw heavy smoke, debris, men flailing in the water. Then I gasped, there she was. The battleship had broken in two. The stern was almost gone, but the forward two thirds of the ship were slowly sinking. I paused for a moment, and weighed my options. After a moments thought, I realized there wasn’t much to consider. I started to get very excited at the situation that had been laid out before us. “Deck gun crew at the ready! Watch Crew prepare small arms! Flak gunner at the ready!” I yelled out, grinning, “Surface the ship! Blow the tanks, pop her up quick Chief!” The crew all stopped what they were doing and just stared at me for a moment. Then slowly, and then quickly, my orders my orders were relayed around the boat. Crew began moving quickly around the boat, preparing for the surface action we were about to partake in. “Chief, have Franz keep up on the repairs, and make sure the ammo is fed up to the bridge quickly, I think we’re going to need a lot of it.” I said. “Aye sir,” He replied, then after a pause, “And we’re surfaced Kaleun!” “Wolfgang! have your watch crew set up the machine guns on the bridge, we’re going to need them!” “Aye!” He cried as he scrambled up the bridge, his watch crew close behind. The gun crews stood behind them, ammo boxes in hand. They were quickly up the ladder. I followed them up. I looked around, the battleship was settling into the depths, men were everywhere the water. We had surfaced right in the middle of the convoy. I quickly scanned the horizon, not another escort to be seen. I only hoped we could have our feast before any more could arrive. |
Conflict is the essence of a story. You have plenty of it here :salute:
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