Animus by Scott McKay

Author:Scott McKay [McKay, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-23T18:30:00+00:00

TWENTY THREE

Watkins Gulf – Noon (Second Day)

Patrick ran into an excellent stroke of luck just after dawn as Adelaide surged ahead of the cavalry’s sweep west in search of the Udar camp. Namely, his crew spotted a pair of telltale sails only a couple of miles off the coast as Adelaide steamed west. He ordered a detour to the port side to investigate and shortly came within sight of an Udar raiding sloop.

“Sons of bitches out looking for a coastal packet to or from Strongstead,” said Rawer at Patrick’s side on the bridge. “We know what to do.”

“We do,” said Patrick, “but I think we want some prisoners here. Let’s not just stand off and sink this one–we’ll see if we can get in close and grab a few of the bastards.”

Rawer scowled – to the Adelaide’s First Mate there was only one good kind of Udar, and that was the dead kind, but he knew an order when he heard one.

“Aye, commander.”

Adelaide left the coast for the bluer water of Watkins Gulf, and in under an hour was bearing down on the fleeing Udar. The frigate hailed the sloop by way of its steam whistle, but the hail was ignored.

“Put a shot across the bow,” Patrick ordered. The pivot gun on the port side carried out that directive in short order.

The sloop continued its course, heading south away from the coastline. Adelaide quickly closed the distance between the two vessels.

“Commander, should we just steam over the top?” asked Rawer.

“Yes. Make it so,” said Patrick. “They’ve had their opportunities, and I’d just as soon not show the enemy a fireball on the horizon.”

A few seconds later, the Adelaide’s crew could feel the crunch of the larger ship’s iron hull shattering the Udar vessel’s wooden frame. Some two dozen Udar sailors jettisoned haphazardly away from their wrecked sloop, splashing into Watkins Gulf and furiously attempting to swim away from Adelaide.

“Lasso a few of ‘em!” Rawer ordered to the Adelaide’s crew. “Might as well go fishin’ this mornin’.”

What followed was a facsimile of sport, as the Ardenian sailors took their turns attempting to loop their hemp ropes over the escaping Udar swimmers – the ropes commonly landed in position to find purchase, but mostly the Udar in their clutches craftily made escapes before those ropes could be pulled taut.

As the sportfishing commenced, Patrick nodded to Ensign Joseph Broadham, who had joined the command team on the bridge. Though fresh out of the naval academy at Wellhurst, Broadham was a great catch as the Adelaide’s Udar translator. His mother had been captured by the Udar at the beginning of Dunnan’s War and spent six months as a prisoner of a particularly nasty Anur who made their Afan’di, or home-grounds, along the Watkins Gulf coast to the south of where Strongstead currently stood. She was rescued when a naval armada, plying the coast, put ashore a thousand Marines for an amphibious assault. That was the Battle of Bak Jayen, and it was one of the bloodier encounters of Dunnan’s War.

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