Twilight stepped slightly out of formation to check over the Royals again, taking care to keep her new hard-magic rifle in hand. They stood behind Chack and the Second Marine Regiment, who stood ready to blast Aryaal’s gates with a pair of field cannons and attack. Once the Marines had established a perimeter, the Royals would follow them and help push to the palace where Fet-Alcas ruled. As far as Twilight was concerned, it was a decent plan.
“Why are we attacking Aryaal?” Verun-Kanas asked. “They are our allies, are they not? This is not right.”
Twilight sighed. “They tried to blow the side off Walker’s hull. We lost a good man to the explosion, but he saved her.” She shifted her rifle’s weight to her other arm. “Just be ready for the order.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the conflicted ‘Cat said. She turned to Louer and repeated Twilight’s words.
Twilight took the opportunity to check her scrying spell’s range again. Whatever blocked her was quite a bit closer than the day before, and Revenge was nearly farther than she could scry. By afternoon, Rick Tolson and his crew would be completely on their own.
Glancing back up, she saw Matt beckon her over from his position near the front of the Marines. He and several destroyermen burned to be the spearhead, and nobody was going to stop them. She approached him, acknowledged Keje-Fris-Ar and Adar, and sighed.
“We’re ready, Captain,” she reported.
Sandra Tucker glared at her. The nurse was clearly not happy with Matt, but she knew couldn’t stop him. She’d resigned to securing his injured arm as tightly to his body as she could, and she stood back alongside Courtney Bradford, out of the way of the coming attack.
“This is madness!” Adar exclaimed. “Surely the Grik are a greater threat. You are only wasting lives in a side scuffle!”
“This ‘side scuffle’ is to keep our supply lines secure!” Matt snarled. “If we don’t deal with that rat hiding in his palace, our supplies could be in danger, and I’m not letting that happen. Our flank would be exposed, our supplies cut, and then the Grik come smashing down on a weakened, starving army and steamroll past us all the way to Baalkpan! Give me one good reason to allow that!”
Twilight grimaced and used her sword as a scrying mirror for the upteenth time, keeping an ear open. This time, she didn’t feel resistance and static to the west. The block was gone. Her eyes widened, and she quickly scanned the area for anything, anything that might have been hiding where she couldn’t see.
A massive Grik fleet, hundreds of red-hulled ships with their white sails full with the wind. From the waves, the wind was in their favor--and would be for a good few hours at least. A couple ships were larger than the others, and she assumed they were a kind of flagship.
Near the back of the formation, a huge steel-hulled vessel a little smaller than a Home of the Sea steamed, black clouds of coal smoke billowing from its two large funnels. The main turrets were trained for and aft, and its numerous secondaries pointed directly to port and starboard. Its pagoda-like superstructure stood proud and strong in front of a tall tripod mast (separated by the funnels), atop with its flag flowed freely in the wind. Slightly offset from the center of that flag was a massive red circle with red rays extending to the edge of its white field.
Twilight quickly ended her scrying and slammed her sword into its sheath. “Captain,” she said insistently.
“Yes?” Matt seemed to only respond out of courtesy. Around him, Keje, Adar, and the other leaders had started coordinating an attack by the entire Allied Expeditionary Force, a discussion which she’d mostly missed.
“Whoever was blocking my scrying stopped, and it looks bad. The Grik are getting close and in huge numbers. Four hundred ships, minimum, to the northwest.”
“We’re out of time?”
“The storm I’ve been seeing should give us a couple days’ leeway, but yeah. They’ll be on top of us in maybe a week and a half at most. And they have a really big ship.”
“How big?”
“From what I saw, noticeably smaller than Salissa, but it was still the biggest steel ship I’ve ever seen. Pagoda superstructure, Japanese naval ensign, and main-battery turrets that have to be the size of Walker’s amidships platform. Looked like twin barrels.”
Matt stopped. “Amagi?”
“I guess. I don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
“I think we just lost the war. Where’s Revenge?”
“Sailing right towards them, but the storm might blow Mr. Tolson past them.”
“Right. This changes things. When does the storm hit?”
“Now that I’ve gotten a better look, I can say with confidence that it’ll hit us around three in the morning tonight. It’s moving fast for a storm.”
Lieutenant Shinya raised his hand a little. “Captain, if I may, I would recommend that Princess Twilight and her Royals begin coordinating evacuating B’mbaado with Queen Maraan, and once we secure Aryaal, we can join in the efforts.”
“Yes. Perfect. Twilight, fall the Royals out of formation. Queen Maraan, if you wouldn’t mind? Everyone.”
Maraan bowed. “Of course. We will begin immediately. I am eternally grateful for your help in preserving us.”
Twilight nodded, spun on her heels, and ran back to Verun and Louer. “Change of plans. We’re going to help Queen Maraan evacuate B’mbaado while the others secure Aryaal.”
Verun blinked surprise. “But ma’am, how are we going to do that? B’mbaado is a city with thousands of people!”
Queen Maraan hurried over, escorted by her large bodyguard.
“Humfra-Dar,” Twilight said. “Since Fristar is already gone with most of the casualties, I want to start loading into her. As many people as you can manage, Queen Maraan. Bring nothing but the bare essentials. The more people we can fit, the more we can save.”
“How fast were the Grik going?” Maraan asked.
“No faster than eight knots, probably. Something tells me they had to stop for extra supplies to weather the storm, which means they lost time. If they hadn’t, they’d be a lot closer. Maybe even a week closer.”
“I see.”
“Verun, have them fall out.” Twilight turned to Maraan as Verun-Kanas obeyed her order. “You should tell your people. Make an announcement. I’ll get with Geran-Eras to start the process. I’d like to get her underway before the storm hits--she’s big enough to be relatively stable in heavy seas. Understood?”
“Yes,” Safir Maraan sighed. A tear ran down her eye as the implications of the evacuation started to hit her. “I understand, Princess.”