Contagion Zone Equestria

by Gearaxis

Naval warfare

Ensign Wave had heard everything over the radio on the bridge where he was hiding. The battleship Cadenza was to arrive at Stalliongrad that night to evacuate the military personnel then shell the city. It made him sick. The navy had been ordered to sink boats and keep more boats from going to the islands, not shell a city full of potential survivors. Staff Sargent Sabre had claimed the city was beyond recoverable conditions but Wave knew that was a lie, even if the city was completely overrun with infected, the princesses would want them to search for survivors. Wave took the ship's announcement system and turned it on. "Everypony on board, this is Ensign Wave speaking from the bridge. The Battleship Cadenza has gone rouge and we must try to stop them! All surviving crew members are to report to battle stations immediately and barricade yourselves inside. Terminate all infected you come across with extreme prejudice." He commanded.

The Battleship, named The Celestia as it was the fastest and most powerful ship in the fleet, was currently floating off the shore of Las Pegasus. Unknown to the rest of the crew, a single pony on board was sick. When he turned, he managed to infect nearly half of the crew, they in turn, killed most of the rest. Ensign Wave had barricaded himself in the bridge to avoid the infected on board. Everypony he had been in command of were now infected and trying to claw in through the door. He heard gunfire somewhere on deck and looked out. Two ponies with M14s were firing on three advancing infected. The crack of the rifles could be heard clearly from the bridge. After dispatching the three infected, the two ponies took their positions in an anti-air gun. He flipped on all the radios and pulled out the headphones so he could hear everypony speaking. The radio connecting the bridge to the engine room came on.

"We are in position sir! We have just barely enough ponies here to opperate the engines!" The radio to the front most gun spoke next. "We don't have enough ponies to operate this thing! We've got all three barrels loaded but once we fire, we're out!" He responded quickly. "Turn the gun parallel to the ship on the port side! We'll try to broadside them." The radio for the back gun came on. "Sir, half of us are here, we can reload and fire, but slowly." Wave thanked him and picked up the radio for the mid gun. "Gun 2 what is your status? Gun 2?" There was no response. Everypony who was still alive, 74 in total, were in their positions. 8 were on the anti-air guns, 38 were in the rear gun, and 10 made it to the front gun. 20 more were in the engine room. Wave took the wheel and started the ship forward. The Celestia roared to life and began rushing toward Stalliongrad.

It took fifteen minutes for The Cadenza to come into view. Wave tried to contact it via radio. "Cadenza, this is the Celestia. You're disobeying direct orders, return to your position at Whinypeg or be relieved of duty, violently." He said. The response took a moment. "Celestia, this is the Cadenza, we're here on orders from General Shell. We're to pick up the surviving squads and destroy the city." Wave glared at the ship from his spot. "That is a negative Cadenza, General Shell would not give such an order. Abort mission now!" The Cadenza began turning to starboard to put the Celestia in their sights. Wave turned to starboard as well so the guns facing port could fire. "This is your last warning Cadenza! Abort mission!" He yelled into the radio. The guns on the Cadenza turned to face the Celestia. "That is a negative Celestia, we're carrying out our orders." Wave nabbed the radios to the guns. "FIRE!" He screamed into them just as the guns on the Cadenza opened fire. Nine 2700 pound rounds slammed into the Celestia, blowing up the center gun and part of the conning tower. Wave was thrown backward away from the steering wheel as an explosion overhead destroyed all radar and radio equipment. Six shells, meanwhile, hit the Cadenza, destroying the engine room and severely damaging the front and mid guns. Wave stumbled to up and grabbed the radios. "Gun 1! Evacuate! Help Gun 3! Gun 3! Reload and fire at the bridge!"

The one intact gun on the Cadenza was ready to fire by the time three new shells were put into the gun on the Celestia. It fired, destroying the front gun completely. The other two guns on the Cadenza, meanwhile, were on fire and inoperable at the moment. The Celestia's gun aimed and fired, the shell tore through the air at 2,690 feet per second and hit the bridge of the Cadenza, blowing it to pieces. The entire conning tower collapsed inward, smashing the front two guns. The rear gun on the Cadenza fired for the third time, barely missing the third gun on the Celestia. The Celestia fired another shot, destroying the last gun on the Cadenza. The crippled battleship tilted toward starboard, the entire deck ablaze sending up huge plumes of black smoke.

The Celestia reloaded and took aim one last time, at the direct center of the Cadenza. It fired, sending its three 16 inch 2700 pound rounds smashing through the ship. The center of the ship exploded, sending pieces of metal in every direction. The ship split in half and began to sink slowly. A second, larger explosion nearly incinerated the front end of the ship, the blast was so massive that the shock wave cracked the windows on the bridge of the Celestia. The door to the hallway burst open to reveal 5 infected, they were just the ones in sight. Wave got ready to fight when a huge piece of the Cadenza, the piece with the D painted on it, sheared off half of the tower. It took the infected with it. Wave stood, stunned at how lucky he'd been, the bridge was intact enough that it wasn't collapsing, but was destroyed enough that the infected would be unable to reach him. Of course, now there was no way to steer the ship.

He stood on the edge of the broken tower and looked out at the ship. A fire had started on the front most gun and there was a huge hole where the mid gun had been, but otherwise the ship was still floating. He picked up the comms system and tried it. "Attention crew, there is a fire in the front gun, please put it out." To his relief, ponies began appearing on deck with firefighting equipment. Several ponies stood guard with guns to shoot any infected that found their way up. Luckily, nopony had been killed or injured during the fight on the Celestia, the Cadenza, however, had lost 98% of her crew, the other 2% in a single life raft, floating toward the Celestia. He'd pick them up but keep an eye on them.

Comments

[Iron Comet]

If these were analagous to WWII Battleships they would have had to pound each other a lot longer to do that kind of damage. The Bridge armor alone is 17" inches thick and is designed to take a full hit from a ships own guns. The hatches alone once sealed would also keep infected from freely roaming a ship, there mazes below decks and are heavy to move even when well oiled. I helped make the New Jersey into a museum back in the day so trust me I know.

[Rinderin]

5177349
Bah, don't think like that. Keep practicing, you'll improve rather quickly. Also, acquire an editor, he'll help fix up your stories and even help you improve your writing.

I have no doubt that you'll be an EXCELLENT writer some day!

[Gearaxis]

5178996 thank you for the info, however, we are assuming the ships are LIKE real ships, if I want them to be blown to pieces in five shots I'll have them blown to pieces in five shots! Also, the infected aren't roaming the ship, there's just so many of them everywhere that it's hard to get around. I thought I made that clear...

[Iron Comet]

He is a pretty good writer right now. I just powered through all the chapters he put up in the last few hours and enjoyed every moment of it. Only real issue I had is the early death of some characters and the lack of remorse from the others after the fact. They barely mourned RD and Pinkie and Raritys death hardly got a mention. Sure there in shock, but the urge to check on family and friends should be more prevelant. Really enjoying the story, keep up the good work.