It has been hours since the storm has stopped. By now, night had fallen. Amidst the dark ocean, only the only source of light was the moon shining high above the sky with the stars only providing a backdrop to the darkness. Sailing through the calm seas, Zimmern's U-Boat searched for their target. Steiner was still picking up the convoy on the hydrophone so the crew knew that it could not be far. Ever the vigilant young officer, Zimmern himself was up-top with Dietrich and the lookouts, eyes pushed deep inside his binoculars.
"Your first time doing this?" Dietrich said out of the blue. The question nearly startled Zimmern but over the course of the weeks that he knew the man, he felt compelled to tell the truth.
"Ja, how could you tell?" He admitted.
"Simple, you seem confident in yourself... a light in this darkness we face." He said in a cynical manner.
"What do you mean by that Dietrich?" Zimmern asked, now curious.
"This whole war... all of it. Do not get me wrong, the kommunist scum deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth, but this war... I am tired of it all." Those words shocked Zimmern.
"You would do good to keep your voice down if you are going to utter those comments, those are treasonous words you know." Zimmern warned. Well, half of him nearly wanted to through Dietrich overboard. Those words went against everything the party had taught. It was almost like Dietrich did not believe in the final victory.
"Don't mind me, I am just a sailor, not a party member or Gestapo agent." Dietrich chuckled. The words stung and Zimmern cringed inwards at the jab and he wanted to lash out. His judgement got the better of him and he decided to fall silent instead of speak his mind, subordinate officer or not. He had a job to do, not a reprimand to file through with.
For next few hours, nothing changed. The stars kept on shining above the U-Boat as it sailed towards the sounds of ships coming from the hydrophone. Eventually, lights were spotted among the reflections of stars and slowly, the U-Boat pressed on not only to meet it's target, but it's destiny.
*** *** ***
If there was one thing that the Lapsis Taylor was truly known for in her old age, it was her impressive lighting system. For as old as she was, the night sky always made the old hybrid liner look somewhat majestic as it sailed through the ocean, especially with all lights blazing. She still couldn't match up to the newer and significantly larger Marenard Liners like the Princess Platinum or the recently retired Celestic class ocean liners that were built for the Lunar Star Line.
But still, what pony needed to sail on an Ocean Liner as brightly lit as the city of Manehattan is when every single light is on. There was no grace, it just looked like a floating spot light. The Celestic and other Lunar Star Liners did it right though. The decks were well lit, floodlights lit up the lower half of each funnel to give off a more ominous and foreboding effect during the night, and each porthole was Equally lot quite well, and light from the outer lights of the ship never managed to reach the cabins inside. It was not spectacular, but it worked and kept the mood of an Ocean Liner being a ship that goes from point A to point B, not a ship that is a party cruise for young couples to party all night on.
The thought of it all passed away with the slight gale that was coming over the port bow as Sea Breeze stood on the left bridge wing. As like all nights at sea, the temperatures tended to drop quite quickly and the breeze only made certain that he was going to head back into the comforts of the ship's interior once he finished witnessing the naval maneuver right in front of him.
About 3 minutes earlier, the ponies on the destroyer ENS Starswirl finally managed to get their hydrophone and sonar working after apparently, some clumsy sea pony decided to accidentally spill their morning coffee all over the new equipment. To add insult to injury, the Starswirl was the only destroyer that was escorting the convoy that was actually equiped with the technology as all the other destroyer escorts were outdated and recently pulled out of the "reserve fleet". The reserve fleet was basically the limbo between scrapping or conversion for navy ships. Due to budget constraints though, none of the ships in said fleet were ever upgraded with even the slightest newer variations in equipment. Their only saving grace was the fact that the Navy had enough money to simply maintain the equipment that the ships already had so nothing was broken. But back to the Starswirl.
Once the ponies on the Starswirl fixed the hydrophone, they picked up a contact a few miles Southwest of the convoy. At first, it was thought to be another merchant vessel but when the radio and moose code signals were used, nopony responded. Pegasi scouts were sent to the approximate location but nothing was found. That was when the Navy began to worry so they decided to send the Starswirl and a couple destroyers to go hunt down the missing contact. What they did not know was that they had sealed their fate in doing so.
*** *** ***
Diving is something that never brings joy to a submariner. But when the U-Boat began to get within viewing range of the convoy's ships, they had no choice. So there it was, sailing through the depths of the sea, lurking beneath the waves, getting ever closer to it's targets. Zimmern had his head nearly glued to the periscope as he searched for contacts. While he was doing that, Dietrich was listening in on the hydrophone with Steiner. The rest of the crew was on high alert and was at each and every one of their stations. Tension was as high as ever. Suddenly, Steiner heard something over the hydrophone.
"Herr Captain, I have a contact approaching. It sounds like a destroyer." He whispered. Turning his body with the periscope, he swivelled around until he saw the target. There, bearing straight towards them, a destroyer with all of it's lights blazing came into view.
"Ja, I see it. It looks like an American Fletcher Class. Dietrich, can you verify this?" He asked, head still glued to the periscope. When Dietrich came over, he made way so he could have a look at through the periscope.
"Ja... I can see it. She doesn't look like she is on alert yet. No Dummkopf would leave his lights on in a war." Dietrich stated.
"That is the Americans for you. Those pigs can only sit on their asses and bomb us from above instead of fight a war like a real man. It goes to show how stupid they are compared to us Germans." Zimmern said. With that, the crew had a good, albeit brief, laugh at their enemies from above. Dietrich however, did not laugh and kept his eyes peering through the periscope.
"I think we can evade her Here Captain." Dietrich said. For a while, Zimmern thought of the idea but relented. A destroyer sailing in open water without even turning her lights off was a target too good to pass up on, especially since it was sailing in a straight line.
"Nein, prepare to flood tubes 1 and 2, we will sink her and the Dummkopf commanding her. Then, we will evade and make our way up to the rest of the convoy." Zimmern ordered. For a moment, Dietrich looked like he was going to say something but he relented.
"You heard the Captain, flood tubes 1 and 2. Prepare to fire on his mark." Dietrich relayed. With that, the U-Boat suddenly burst into activity as every man prepared for the upcoming battle.
*** *** ***
It had been 30 minutes past and the 3 destroyers had still not found anything. By now, most of the merchant ships had begun to fall into a tighter formation with each other as they waited for the all clear over the radio and moose telegraph. For Sea Breeze, he decided to take one step further and had all lights below the hull and cabin lights in the super structure turned off. He kept the deck lights, the floodlights on the funnel, and the navigation lights on for the sake of not having a ship ram him but if he could, he would've turned those off too.
The whole situation just didn't seem right to him. As a seapony who served in the Navy for the better half of his life, he knew from experience that caution was to be taken. It seemed like no other pony in charge of their ships had that feeling though as they kept their lights blazing brightly.
Sighing, Sea Breeze sought to return to the crew mess to geta cup of coffee before he returned for the final night watch before he turned in for bed. When he was about to put his hoof on the door handle though, the sound of an explosion broke the eerie silence of the sea. All around him, spotlights and Pegasi began to shoot up in the air as seaponies began to flock the decks to witness what had just happened. When he made his way to the stern, he finally saw what had just happened.
The Starswirl had just blown up.
After a few minutes of shock and pandemonium across the deck, Riveted Keel finally turned up in the swarm of sea ponies dashing to prepare the lifeboats and signal flares.
"Captain, what happened? I just heard an explosion and..." Riveted became quiet as he made his way slowly towards the edge of the stern railing to see the Starswirl slowly slip into the waves as the 2 destroyers that went with it to investigate made their way towards the sight of the carnage.
"Wha... What do we do now Captain?" Keel asked, slowly recovering from the shock.
"Get Sparky on the line and get him in contact with the admiral." Sea Breeze ordered.
"Sir, the rear admiral is most likely thrashing in the sea dammit!" Keel pointed out.
"For Celestia's sake I know that! That is why the admiral needs to know!" Sea Breeze nearly yelled. For a moment, Riveted Keel's face wore an expression of shock and worry as he looked at his Captain's face and pondered over the order. Sea Breeze wasn't mad at his first officer for doing so though, as he knew that even so much as mentioning the admiral was something that many did not want to think about. But the fact remained, this was a serious situation and nopony could contact the Elements of Harmony so the next best choice was the admiral. Once Riveted Keel broke out of his shock, he hastily saluted and made his way over to Sparky in the radio room to relay the orders. Deep in the back of his mind though, Sea Breeze felt a fear he had not felt in a long time and worried if he had made the right decision.