Chapter 34

The hairs on the back of my neck told me we were in trouble just before it happened.

We'd sailed the next day for Izmir. Our taskforce consisted of the Windrunner, the Swordfish, and six smaller craft that we were using to transport the Oak Hall Expeditionary Force. It wasn't that large. With four out of the six fighting ships in our fleet being manned by men and women from Oak Hall, we had very few left who could be used on the ground at Izmir. Still Elsa Mueller had recruited a hundred men and women from amongst her people and the citizens of the town whom she could press into service defending the walls of Izmir if it became necessary. That left Sir Humphrey with only his city watch and a few volunteers to defend Oak Hall if things went badly for us. Hopefully it wouldn't. As for help from Blue Harbour, Lord Tailem promised at least fifty archers, though they had yet to arrive.

At Izmir we had one last council of war and then we feasted and enjoyed ourselves before setting off once more. The taskforce sailed at dawn with the Windrunner leading the way. Behind me I left Kola, Caitlin, and Asana. They would stay with Lord Omar and help where needed. With me I brought Nimue and Felicity.

My plan called for a pre-emptive strike on the Minoan fleet. Deep down I didn't want to give the bastards on the other Earth a great show. I didn't want thousands of casualties and needless destruction of men and material and I certainly had no desire to risk my own people in the entertainment of others. With the intelligence given to me, I knew exactly when the Minoan fleet was going to gather and where. My intentions were to sail south with our small taskforce and strike the Minoans while they were still at anchor. Hopefully the destruction of their fleet would persuade King Argo to think twice before trying to mount another attack.

Unfortunately wars rarely go the way you want them to go. It's true. One of the first things that anyone will tell you in the military is that even the best laid plan means nothing once you cross the start line. Once committed to battle anything can happen. It happened to us.

We'd sailed with the morning tide from Izmir. Once past the western shores of Izmir, our taskforce turned south. My hope was that good winds would speed us along, saving the strength of the oarsmen on the other ships and allowing us to travel through the night. With luck we would be off Helios within a week's time. That's when it happened.

I was in the bow of the Windrunner gazing out at the sea before us, my spy glass in hand when instinct told me to look towards the shore. The bow of the Windrunner was just beginning to slip pass the mouth of a small cove in the shoreline that ran long and deep into the land. That's when I spotted the bireme. The vessels oars were in the water and it was beating a course straight for us. The craft was Minoan.

"Helmsman," I shouted at the top of my voice, "hard to starboard now. Crew ... battle stations. Rory and Nimue ... man your weapons and open fire. Felicity ... I want you on that bike of yours and in the air. Get back to Izmir and tell Omar that the fucking Minoans are already here. Dork ... signal the taskforce ... battle stations ... hard to starboard."

The words just burst out of my mouth like they were buckshot from a shotgun. The helmsman reacted instantly. The Windrunner was an agile craft and we came around almost on a dime. As we did Dork grabbed his signalling flags. One of the things that I'd implemented once I knew we'd be heading out as a taskforce against the Minoans was to create a system of relaying orders between ships. Thankfully, there were enough outworlder sailors in our small navy who understood semaphore. I'd gone for a crude version of it, knowing it would take too long to train enough signallers from every ship in our group. On the Windrunner it was Dork. The big guy was cleverer than he looked and he'd grasped the concept without any problem. He was passing on my orders seconds after I'd given them to him. Hopefully the other ships in the taskforce got the message and responded before it was too late.

I ran to the stern, pausing only long enough to grab up my weapons and new armour from where I'd left them by Tagus' cabin. Amongst the parcels that Sydney White had brought back from his alternate Earth was some high tech armour for me. I now had a Greek style helmet, a Greek style shield to replace the one I'd lost in Blue Harbour and greaves for my shins. The metal in them wasn't as good as the stuff my chainmail was made of, but it was better than anything else on Game World and that was all that really mattered.

Nimue and her gunner's mate were already in the stern when I got there and they were blasting away at the Minoan vessel with the stern ballista. Their first two shots fell short of the target, the range being too far, but the third hit its bow and the fourth and fifth dropped onto the vessel's deck. By then projectiles were flying from the Swordfish, striking the enemy vessel as well. The Swordfish had been directly astern of the Windrunner and when we suddenly changed course, their helmsman had reacted instantly and they'd done the same. Their ability to turn was slower than the Windrunner's but they still accomplished it and in the end, that difference between the two vessels allowed the Swordfish to fire more flammable projectiles at the attacking Minoan bireme than Nimue and her gunner's mate were able to do.

The combined barrage had an immediate affect on the attacking bireme. The first was the conflagration that had broken out on the front quarter of the vessel. Flames were clearly visible as was billowing smoke. The second affect was that the crew of the vessel suddenly reversed their oars and their forward momentum was decreasing. Obviously the captain of the vessel wasn't planning on taking any chances. If his craft continued to burn, he'd at least get the ship close enough to shore to abandon ship without loosing too many crewmen.

I lost interest in the bireme quickly. By now the Windrunner was pulling away from the ship and our projectiles were falling short. Nimue ceased firing as did the crew of the Swordfish. By now one of the vessels manned by Izmir had closed with the bireme and they were firing there own barrage in an effort to sink the enemy craft. By then my attention was elsewhere.

As I moved out of the stern, heading over towards Tagus and the helmsman, I spotted Felicity take off. Her bike rose gracefully off the deck and then slipped over the side. As she zipped away I wished her good luck. That's when I heard the lookout screaming a new warning.

The attacking bireme hadn't been the only enemy craft in the vicinity. I spotted two beating a course directly towards the Windrunner and the Swordfish. I also spotted one coming from the north that was within ramming range of the last ship in our taskforce. The skipper of that vessel, a ship from Izmir called the Serpent, hadn't spotted it and was just coming about when the Minoan vessel broadsided it. I watched with horror as oars splintered, wood went flying, and men started tumbling into the sea. I cursed loudly and then started barking orders once again.

"We'll do what we did last time we met these bastards," I shouted to Tagus and his helmsman. "Head for the port vessel and then shear hard to port and come along her starboard side. We'll set her ablaze. Once past her, come about and head for the ship that just rammed the Serpent. We'll deal with it next. Let the Swordfish handle the starboard vessel."

At that point I turned to Dork who was standing ready with his box of flags and gave him the word. I told him to signal the Swordfish and tell them to concentrate their attack on the starboard craft. With a grunt of acknowledgement, the big guy rushed to the stern railing and got to work. While he did that, I headed forward, calling to Tobias.

"Get your archers ready Tobias," I called out to him. "We're going to do the same thing as we did the last time we met one of these big ships and I want your archers ready to add to the havoc we're going to rain down on them."

Tobias nodded and started barking his own orders to the dozen men that he now had under his command. They were all armed with bows and they all had arrows nocked. I just kept going. I wanted to check on Rory.

Rory and Zahra were in the bow and ready for action. I quickly told them what we were about to do. By then we were but a dozen ships lengths from the other vessel and I knew we were about to shift course. I felt the Windrunner roll to the port and I quickly grabbed a railing and steadied myself. We held that course for a couple of heartbeats and then the Windrunner rolled hard to starboard. Almost instantly, the Windrunner started to roll back towards the centre. At that point Rory let out a shout and he started to fire.

His first shot fell short but that was it. We were skimming pass the bireme by then and the remainder of his shots found their mark. The skipper on the bireme had instinctively shipped his starboard sets of oars to avoid loosing them and his momentum dropped. As fire started to burst out on the enemy craft, I heard Tobias shouting for his men to fire. They did and his arrows rose up and then fell onto the other vessels deck. I didn't see how effective they were, but I didn't care so long as they added to the chaos and prevented the enemy crew from responding to the fires until it was too late to do anything about them. As I hurried back towards the stern and Tagus, I saw another flight of arrows rise and fall and I heard cries of pain and death coming from the other vessel. I ignored those cries and focused on the battle at hand.

"We'll be clear of this craft in a second," I told Tagus as I got to him. "Make sure that you swing wide as you come about so we don't run into the Swordfish. Once clear head for the far bireme. I want to deal with it next and to see if we can rescue any men off the Serpent before it goes down."

Tagus nodded his agreement and then started hissing his orders. I took off again, heading towards the port railing with my spy glass in hand. I wanted to have another look around.

I scanned to the stern and saw that the bireme in the cove was totally ablaze and from the look of it, abandoned by its crew. I could see heads bobbing about in the waves. From there I panned my spy glass southward going east to west. I didn't spot any other ships on the horizon. By now we were coming about and I turned my spy glass to the northwest. Again I spotted nothing but distant islands. Satisfied that there was nothing else out here to threaten my taskforce, I put my spy glass away and headed forward to see what was happening with Serpent.

The Serpent was crippled and essentially lost. Most of her crew were either clinging to the wreckage of the ship or they were already in the water. The Minoan vessel was trying to disengage itself from what was left of the craft from Izmir. The captain of the vessel had his oarsmen rowing backwards in an effort to free his ship. When that occurred the Serpent would go down and it would probably take most of its crew with it. I needed to stop that from happening but the question was how. I had one idea but it was risky as hell.

"Tagus," I shouted back to my friend, "I want you to bring us along that vessel's starboard side and if you have to, shear their oars. I'm going to board the Minoan ship."

"What?" both Tagus and his helmsman cried out in disbelief at my words.

"Just do it," I shouted back at him before turning my attention to Tobias and his men. Tobias was already looking at me like I was crazy.

"You heard what I said to Tagus," I told him sharply, "Get your men organized and with grappling hooks. We've only got seconds left before we're in position and I want to be ready. It's going to be your job to stop the forward momentum of the Windrunner or we'll be ploughing into the Serpent ourselves and doing the Minoans job for them. Now get with it."

I didn't wait for his reply. Instead I started calling for my party. Dork and Nimue reached me first followed by Rory and Zahra and Goiania. They were all looking at me wondering what we were about to do.

The big problem with my plan was that the bireme railings were higher than that of the Windrunner. They had at least six feet of hull between us and them and we needed to get up it quickly without losing anyone. My plan called for timing, audacity, and a hell of a lot of luck. With no time to get into details, I quickly told everyone what I wanted them to do. Before anyone could raise an objection, Tagus shouted out for everyone to brace for impact. The next thing I heard was wood breaking and then the voice of Tobias ordering his men to throw their grapples. It was time to act.

"Dork," I shouted loudly, "get into position."

While Dork did as I commanded, I started running at the man. Dork was big. At eight feet tall his head actually reached the deck of the Minoan ship. He moved the instant I shouted at him and braced himself against the railing of the Windrunner. As I ran at him, he cupped his hands in front of him. At the last moment, I leapt up and placed my foot into his hands. With a massive heave I was up into the air and headed for the Minoan vessel, flying over the short span of open water that lay between the Windrunner and it. Miraculously I was able to grab hold of the railing of the other vessel. With a swing of my hips I was up and over it and dropping down onto the deck before anyone on the other craft realized what was going on. I landed just before the aft most rowing station.

As I came down I drew my sword from its scabbard and shucked my shield off my shoulder. All about me was chaos. The men in the starboard side rowing stations were somewhat in a daze. When the Windrunner had sheared their oars, men had gone flying into other men and some had been hit by splinters of wood. On top of that other men were rushing across the deck with axes in their hands intent on cutting the grappling hooks free from the bireme's railing. I wasn't going to let that happen. Within a blink of the eye I brought my sword into play, first stabbing the oarsmen closest to me and then pushing on towards the men welding the axes. My onslaught drew a lot of attention.

It was what I wanted. I jumped from where I had landed to another rowing station and stabbed a man armed with an axe, striking him down even as he raised his weapon to chop away the grappling hook. Then I turned and dealt with the two oarsmen. They were just picking themselves up when I struck. In second they were dead as well and I was moving on.

My attack distracted the Minoans and during that distraction, Nimue leapt aboard the Minoan vessel followed shortly after by Goiania. Nimue was armed with a sword and shield and she headed across the rowing station and up onto the central deck so that she could enter the fray and protect my back. Her sword darted left and right and in seconds she'd cut down an oarsman and an armed guard. While she did this, Goiania drew her bow and nocked an arrow and started picking targets towards the stern of the ship. Her eye was good and in seconds three of the Minoan officers were dead. As she shifted positions to take aim at another man, Zahra appeared over the railing. Armed with her crossbow she dropped to the rowing station beside Goiania and got to work. She quickly put a bolt on her weapon and added her fire to the struggle, dropping a sword welding Minoan who'd been rushing towards me while I was dealing with another man.