The Atlantean-Dominion War

by The Atlantean

34. Blast From The... 16-Inch Gun Barrel

Middle Road gestured to a point on the map in front of her. She, Harbormaster Nightmane, and Summercrest governor Physics Psych (Crimson’s father) were gathered around the dining table in Mr. Psych’s family residence, where a high-quality map of the Atlantean southern coastline and the Celestial Sea out to thirteen hundred miles away from shore was spread across the hardwood. “Admiral Mariner said for me not to tell you this, Governor. In fact, it was his explicit orders. But I believe that, in order for us to coordinate a successful attack on the enemy fleet at this location, we need the logistical support you control.”

“What kind of fleet are we talking about?” The governor wore on his face a predatory grin.

“It’s big,” Nightmane said. “Six hundred plus ships, but fifty of them are logistics. No doubt capable of defending themselves,” he hastily added, “and plenty dangerous. However, the fact still stands. Also, there’s four prison ships, as if they plan on taking prisoners from either four separate cities, or they’ll make a big push at Nautinia to take the Queen, transporting her in one of them. We wouldn’t know which one, because there’s four, and they’ll get away.”

Physics Psych glanced at the map, at Captain Road, and back at the map. He let out a long, tired, anxious sigh. “What do you need me to do?”

“Don’t let the admiral think we’re on to him. We never had an Admiral Mariner, but I didn’t realize that until I was in his ship. By that time, all I could do was play along. I also threw a mislead of my own.”

Nightmane grinned. “You never told him about Lavender Blue Sea.”

“No, I didn’t. Captain Crabwalker may be a bad date, but he’s good at his job. I sent a ray-dee-oh transmission to him, since we repaired and got him the one from Neptune, and told him to scout the area Mr. Mariner mentioned. I also told him to turn tail and run as soon as he found the fleet, if it’s there. Considering that this could be just a diversion, it may not even exist, though I don’t doubt the Dom naval capacity. His daily report should come in about… now,” she said as the ray-dee-oh operator saluted at the door and walked over.

He gave it to her. She greedily read the message, but stopped at a certain point, wide-eyed.

Middle Road looked at the two stallions in front of her. “I think this confirms it. They’ve got a gunboat out there.” She turned to the operator. “Relay this message to Double NC, and ask if the Queen could spare a minute to assess the situation here through a communications spell.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He scurried back to the ray-dee-oh and began tapping.

Queen Atlanta, ruler of Atlantis, covered her eyes with her hoof in annoyance. She took a deep breath and moved her hoof away. Her ocean-blue coat was streaked with dirt and grime, and deep purple semicircles showed under her turquoise eyes as if she hadn’t slept nearly enough these last few weeks.

Which she hadn’t. For seven weeks straight, a large Dom force had been hammering Fort Azure on the western shore and Fort Lazuli on the east. She knew that they must’ve gotten around the Summercrest net, which was understandable considering the small town’s supplies were… limited, to say the least. But what she couldn’t understand was why the nearest Atlantean ships weren’t coming to her aid. The two forts were running out of ammunition, and the scattered hulks of sunken Dominion warships littered the harbor. In fact, so much was the enemy’s desperation that they’d landed several thousand warriors in her own dockyard! These troops immediately began to spread chaos and destroy hundreds of homes, already costing millions in property damage. Atlanta suspected other horrible atrocities were committed by the soldiers rampaging unchecked, with only twenty law enforcement groups of about six ponies each keeping control of a couple multi-story buildings throughout the city.

Atlanta had declared an extreme emergency and evacuated as many civilians as she could to her palace, which was more practically built than other rulers preferred. With its defensive Tampa Guard using breech-loading rifles, nine strategically placed gun emplacements, and walls built to withstand multiple large detonations, the place was virtually impregnable. Atlanta had dotting her walls seven thousand of her elite Tampa Guard, there to protect the innocents and government behind them. Any less, and the Doms would already be swarming. As it was, her numbers here kept them away… for now. Even her Tampa Guard would be no match for the multitudes of enemies in the city - fourteen thousand Atlantean lives had already been lost that way.

The palace ray-dee-oh operator burst in holding a piece of paper. Atlanta took it with an acknowledging nod and read. When she saw that Summercrest requested a minute or two from her, she sighed. At least it couldn’t be as bad as this, right?

An hour later, when everything was ready on both ends, Atlanta cast a communications spell to speak with her ponies.

“Please tell me this is good news,” she said wearily.

“My Queen,” answered Captain Road, “I’m afraid it’s the opposite. Lavender Blue Sea found some Dom gunboats pretty close to the coastline, way past our net.”

“Leaving the battle here, no doubt.” When she saw the puzzled look on the captain’s face, the alicorn explained. “We’ve been under siege here for over two months now. Last month’s victory at Pacifica was wonderful - we definitely needed it - but it is hard to continue hoping.”

“By Harmony,” Middle Road said. “An admiral came here in friendly-looking ships, but he definitely was Dom when I came inside his wardroom. The only problem is, all I can do about it is have him keep his people aboard his ships at all times.”

“Do what you can to either find out whose side he’s truly on… and destroy him if need be. Those are your orders. You must call in your ships and bring this admiral… What did he call himself?”

“Admiral Mariner, ma’am. He told us to call him Bio.”

“As in Biological.” Atlanta’s tired eyes suddenly opened wider than the ocean was wide. “Get him out of Summercrest. He’s been developing killer weapons for years under Jagged Edge. The thing is, he loves it. I amend your orders. Do not give him the benefit of the doubt. He and his research is a danger to all of ponykind. Destroy him as soon as you can at all costs. Do you understand, Captain?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“If you can remove him and his fleet before he does anything insane, get anything you can over here. I’m not sure how much longer we can last.”

“We’ll do what we can, ma’am.” Middle Road solemnly replied. Then Atlanta ended her spell and her image disintegrated.

The Queen sighed. If only she could get reinforcements right now, that would be helpful. Or maybe some good news. She wouldn’t mind some of that either. Reflecting back on her… rather drunk youth, it was a wonder she’d beaten the corrupt king eleven years ago. Four years before that, she’d stopped going to bars late at night, going home with some drunk stallion. But that king was practically no match for her angry rebels. The Doms, on the other hoof… They were as angry as her ponies, and even more professional. This was the challenge she faced. And she wanted out so damn bad. But if she faltered, so would her troops, and there goes the independence from the Dominion the ponies of Atlantis had enjoyed for three hundred years.

Somepony brought her coffee. She nodded gratefully and took a tentative sip, feeling the hot liquid trickle down her esophagus and rejuvenate her tired nerves. Even if Army rations were all they had left in this damaged holdout of a palace, at least the cooks still made decent coffee.

Artillery was loud. It sent waves of overpressured air into her hurting ears. It deafened the poor, brave ponies who fired it. But it kept the Doms from getting too close. Of course, the Doms were pretty close to shuttling a load of guns onto shore, and then it was game over. Atlanta would have no choice other than to surrender, if the lives of those she ruled over had any impact on her decision-making process. She only had to hope…

Middle Road called for a group meeting for all Atlantean officers in Summercrest, with the captains of all her deployed ships using spells to attend even though they were who-knows-where. Tie Dye reported first: “We’re about to begin raising Neptune’s hull. All other artifacts have been recovered, and all sixteen uncovered bodies have been identified and are currently being embalmed so their respective families can bury them later.”

“Understood. Crabwalker, what do you have for us?” the tan Unicorn asked.

“We’ve received your message about Nautinia, and we are currently headed to Haven Cove to recruit the defense force there. We’ll arrive tomorrow morning, and hopefully be back in Nautinia by week’s end, if you’ll pass that on to the Queen.”

“I will. Ensign?” Captain Road called to an attending junior officer as she scribbled on a piece of paper. “Take this to the ray-dee-oh, if you will.” He saluted briefly, then took the paper and galloped off. “Alright then. So Crabwalker can’t come here. XO, how many ships can you spare?”

“None, I’m afraid,” Tie Dye replied. “I have Dragonheart carrying all the artifacts, which is making her quite top-heavy, and Cape Lune and Sundering Sea are both needed to lift Neptune from the bottom.”

“I see.” Middle Road rubbed her brown mane. “Indy can probably blast all their ships at once if we aim right, using both her primary and secondary armaments. The problem will be doing that without them noticing.”

“Ember’s due to come back from AREA tomorrow,” Nightmane said thoughtfully. “We could use her as a distraction.”

“That leaves very little time to get going. And we may just have to do this tonight. Remember, the Queen told us to do it at all costs, and as soon as possible. If we keep all lights on the cruiser and harbor from shining on the guns, or preferably the entire ship, we can aim in the dark, using their own ship’s lights against them. We’ll say that our light emitters need to be checked or replaced, so we’ve turned them off to keep ourselves from being electrocuted.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Tie Dye said.

“That’s enough planning for me,” Nightmane said. “Let’s get cracking already!”

Nightmane stood on Indianapolis’s Bridge with a trusted pony on the gun platform forward. The pony was quietly relaying instructions to four others, who then turned the guns. It was clanky and noisy as hell, especially since the night was otherwise silent, but it had to be done. Nightmane walked out to the port bridge wing and stared up at the silver moon above, the “Mare in the Moon” watching his every move. He knew that at least somepony would see his revenge if there was in fact anypony there. The Doms had killed his son. Now it was payback time.

Middle Road was down in the yard, explaining to Admiral Mariner why the lights were out. For now, he was content with her explanation, but also wanted a reason for the noise. His ponies wouldn’t be able to sleep through all the racket. She had a reply prepared: “If you want this ship ready to sail at any time, you’ll let this slide.” He reluctantly sighed and left.

“Nightmane, how much longer?” she called up after Mariner was out of earshot.

“Let me check.” He asked the pony directing the guns the same question, and he gave his answer. Nightmane looked at the Unicorn. “Just fine-tuning the solutions, Captain.”

“You have five minutes before he comes back with a lantern squad.”

“Got it.” Nightmane looked at the pony on the platform. “Five minutes, Gunno!”

“Understood!” came the hushed reply. Two minutes later, he called up: “solutions match, sir! Ready to fire when you are!”

“Captain Road?”

“Go ahead, Mr. Nightmane,” she said. She looked to where the Dom fleet was anchored, a few dozen feet from the harbor on the other side of the bay. All civilians had already been evacuated from the area, so nopony but Doms would bleed tonight.

Nightmane gave the order. “All guns trained on the enemy, fire!”

Nearly a dozen fireballs blossomed from the gun barrels as they spat their rounds into the cool night air. The projectiles streaked across the black bay water and slammed into the eleven Dom vessels rocking gently on the waves. Each projectile was one of the few high-explosive rounds they had left, and they were no duds. They exploded against the wooden hulls with orange balls of fire that lit the night sky. And wooden hulls are no match for HE rounds. The ships all went sky-high as their guts were spilled across the surrounding area. Masts fell, blackened sails made a harsh hiss as they collided with the cold water, and what was left turned turtle and capsized as the sea filled their hulls and reclaimed its place. By dawn, the only things left afloat were pieces of wood, blown around by the blasts, and whoever was clinging on to them for dear life.

Middle Road found a young lieutenant pulling himself onto the dock. When he saw her, he looked ready to bolt, but then realized running would probably get him killed.

Eyeing the orange sunlight reflect off the bay, he glanced back at the captain, hoping she would leave. When she didn’t, he finally spoke. “What are going to do with me?”

Nightmane, Governor Psych, and several officers had arrived and stopped. They saw Captain Road tremble a bit. Then she replied: “You are Dominion, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am. Lieutenant Commander Five, captain of DNV Killer Angel. I never had a name.”

“Under an Atlantean flag?”

“Yes, ma’am, under orders from the admiral. Please don’t kill me!” he pleaded.

“Is there a reason you did this besides following orders?”

“Please, hear me out, ma’am. There’s a gunboat, unarmed, out in the deep ocean. Two, actually. They are unsupplied. Aboard, my daughter and the children of my comrades are starving to death. I was told that she would be brought home only if I did exactly what I was told.” Tears had begun filling his eyes.

Middle Road shook him. “Where are they? Tell me!” she practically screamed.

“I don’t know. Only Mariner knows, and he’s probably dead!”

“You mean this asshole?” Nightmane asked. He motioned for a splintered, beat-up Dominion admiral to be dragged up by guards. “He apparently never came back to his ship. My boys found him snooping around the lighthouse. They arrested him and sent some others to look for any kind of weapon. None found.”

“That’s because you blew up my work! You have destroyed my life, my goal!” Mariner snapped back.

“Yeah, I don’t care. What matters is that you’re not gonna endanger my home any longer.”

“Shut it, Nightmane.” Middle Road said, irritated. “Now, Admiral, if you’d like to live another five minutes, you’ll tell me where these gunboats are.”

He didn’t respond, obviously hiding something. She slapped him hard across the muzzle, causing blood to trickle from his nose. “Tell me, now!” When he failed to reply again, she smacked him again. “As much as I don’t like doing this, I’ll do what I must to keep ponies alive if I can. So, tell me what I want to know, or this will be much worse. After all, I have no qualms with dropping you into the sea tied to a rock.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Well, you came under an Atlantean flag. That tells me that I may give you a spy’s treatment.”

Mariner fumed. “Ocean grid twenty-nine.”

“And where is that?”

“South-southwest. One hundred sixty miles.”

“Of what?”

“Cape Lune.”

“Mr. Nightmane, relay that to Tie Dye, and tell her to send Dragonheart to those coordinates. If you’re wrong, Admiral, you’ll be in a world of pain. Governor Psych, we’ll give Lieutenant Five the benefit of the doubt. See to it that he is given… better accommodations than our friend Mariner here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Yes, ma’am.”