Millennia: Eye of the Storm

by Thunderblast

12. Crisis - Part I

In Sea's sudden movement to the button that finally ceased the obnoxiously loud tone's blare, all of us let out individual sighs of relief, while also keeping alert as we each pondered who hailed not just the Eclipse, but all vessels in the general vicinity.

Almost by instinct with all eyes in the room fixing on him, Vernon leaped right back on the headset, twisting knobs on a radio device in front of him to pinpoint a clear channel for the signal. Everypony went silent a second time, letting the unicorn sailor go to work.

As the minutes ticked by, he eventually held the frequency knob in one place, his ears perking as he listened in. Only a couple more moments later did his eyes grow wide, swiveling his chair to face those of us, dropping the headset from his ears around his neck.

"It's a tanker, about fifteen nautical miles due northeast. Sustained a major electrical failure from the storm and is sailing blind. I tried listening in for more, but... it cut out before they finished."

"A tanker?" Tacimo blinked twice. "Was a name given?"

Vernon shook his head. "No, Senior Chief. But, say the damage is severe enough, there are shallow areas scattered around here that they could inadvertently collide with. If they are radar blind from all angles, there's no possible way for them to know which direction they are headed."

"What are you saying, Petty Officer?" the senior chief narrowed in on the unicorn.

Vernon exhaled softly. "I am saying, Senior Chief, if the weather is consistently deteriorating as Lance Corporal Star Shooter is reporting, it is inevitable that we could be looking at a capsizing or sinking."

In all reality, the thought of one's ship capsizing or going under is terrifying in itself. The present atmosphere of it all only added to the fear. Whipping winds, blinding rain, and towering seas that could suck a pony beneath the surface and hold them long enough to where they give up, or they are incapacitated and later drowned from asphyxiation.

A minute of silence followed, until Tacimo turned toward me. "Do you have the ship in sight?"

I blinked with very brief bewilderment, then glancing down at the center monitor, typing quickly to pan out the regional picture as far as it could go. In seconds, multiple blips came within few, with the center sweep being our own radar, moving behind some others in the distant east.

Of all signatures on the screen, one stood out the most, moving significantly slower than the others and placing itself near the ten-o'clock position on the radar—northeast of our current position, around fourteen to fifteen nautical miles, as mentioned by Vernon.

I glanced back up, nodding once. "Affirmative, Senior Chief. Moving very slowly, about four knots, fourteen-point-three-five nautical miles north-northeast. Signal is weak, so it's either cloud interference, or loss of power to their transmitters, which would explain the flickering."

"Keep an eye on it. Until then, maintain current heading and speed, remain in the fleet line until we're out of this storm," the senior officer ordered, sitting once more in his chair.

Between Sea Watch and Vernon, the two exchanged looks. Of the two, it was Sea who spoke up. "Sir, I believe we should stay put for the moment."

Perking his ears, Tacimo glanced over his shoulder, honing in on Sea and blinking twice. "Pardon?"

"Well, as Vernon addressed, Senior Chief, it may very well be a wise decision to remain in the general vicinity of the tanker in the event that they issue a mayday call, so that we may be close enough if they are to abandon ship," he explained, motioning one of his hooves.

Tacimo's brow furrowed, a faint frown pursing his lips. "As inclined as I am to agree, er..." he narrowed in more on Sea. "What is your rank, sailor?"

Sea straightened his back just slightly. "Petty Officer, second class, sir," he proudly responded.

"Right. As inclined as I am to agree, Petty Officer, we have orders to follow, and our orders are to remain in line and keep in contact with the fleet until we come top side of this storm."

Here came that bull-headed attitude Shadow forewarned. Except, now, it was over a possible life or death situation for the ponies on that tanker.

"With all due respect to orders, Senior Chief," I chimed in. "Petty Officer Sea Watch is right. Just in case, we may as well prepare and make a slight course correction so that we can be close enough if it comes to it."

"I must concur with the Lance Corporal," came a voice from behind, swiveling my ear.

All of us turned, immediately standing without a moment's hesitation as Shadow strode through the doorway, right up to Tacimo, but looping around to his seat. "At ease," he addressed.

"Captain," Tacimo nodded once as he remained standing, fixing on the greenish-grey stallion. "How was your leave?" he joked.

"Lovely, actually. Quite nice to see you haven't beached us in the Griffish Isles yet, especially with visibility like this," Shadow responded, setting his steaming mug down just off to the side. "There is no need to brief me, I heard the message myself."

"One other thing, though. I have been informed that we are currently sitting in a category two storm. You heard me, a two. The Storm Center in Baltimare is saying it developed so quickly that it completely jumped past a level one," he exhaled as he explained.

A chill ran up my spine. A small one, nonetheless. "What is it named, sir?"

"Come again?" Shadow glanced over his shoulder, blinking twice.

"The storm, does it have a name?"

"Well," Shadow shifted his seat around. "They have actually left it up to us to decide. Us, as in, the entire fleet. Seems silly, I know, but we are their primary source for their data on the hurricane."

"Aquarius," said Sea, somewhat sternly.

I looked to him, as did Shadow, Vernon, and Tacimo.

"Aquarius is a water-based zodiac, but is also a mythological creature that once wreaked havoc on the world centuries ago with mile-high tsunamis and hurricanes like no other. The name is fitting."

A silence fell upon the room, until Shadow broke it.

"Aquarius it is, then," he swiveled his seat back around. "And he is furious. Tac, call down to the helmspony, ten degrees rudder off the port."

"Aye, skip," Tacimo responded, picking up the phone receiver and dialing for the control quarters below deck. As soon as somepony on the other end answered, he began giving the orders to alter the ship's heading.

Reaching forward, Shadow took the receiver on the radio, switching frequencies for the whole fleet to hear.

"Lunar Fleet, L.R.S. Eclipse, we are changing heading to intercept a possible maritime emergency within our general vicinity. Weather conditions continuing to deteriorate, gale-force wind gusts likely with less than a quarter mile of visibility."

Between Shadow and Tacimo, two separate conversations went on, one lasting longer than the other. As the minutes ticked by, the ship lurched left, beginning to turn in that direction as ordered. Every couple of seconds, I took note of the shift in position on the radar monitor of the distressed vessel, now placing it ten-thirty off the port bow.

Since the heading change, however, the ship's rocking motion also changed. Rather than a forward-backward motion, the carrier rocked side to side as it crossed diagonally across the massive waves. At any rate I would have expected a hundred-foot wave to appear out of the blue and completely overturn the ship, despite its enormous weight that one would believe cannot happen.

A massive jolt struck the starboard bow, exploding with foamy water that swept across the whole of the flight deck, like a tide coming in over a lump on a beach. The few that remained on the deck hurried inside, closing the watertight hatch as the storm surge swamped across the deck. What ever had not been securely tied down was immediately wiped away into the angry seas.

In the wave's impact, most of us grabbed quickly on to anything that would not move—that being our desks. Behind me, smaller objects such as cups and some boxes of napkins slid against the corner at one end of the counter.

The coffee maker slid slowly, only due to the rubber pegs on the bottom creating friction. Although, even though the machine itself posed no threat, the glass pot, still half full of hot coffee, came ajar and fell to the floor with a smash, spilling coffee all along the floor, running quickly like a stream until it washed up against the wall, only to roll back as the ship corrected itself atop the wave, and rock to the other side a lot more gently.

In shock, the five of us threw fearful, shocked looks between one another, surprised by the wave that happened to turn the ship back to its original heading, as told by a simple glance at my screens. Evidently, it seemed Aquarius had other plans for us.

"For as long as I have been the commanding officer of this ship, not once in my life have I been in seas this nasty," Shadow stated, shifting in his seat. "Everypony all right?"

"We are. Can't say the same about the coffee pot," I said with a frown, looking behind me at the puddle of coffee and glass that drenched half the floor.

Sighing, Shadow looked forward, out the windshield. "I'll call somepony up to clean later. For now, everypony be weary of the glass, step or jump over the puddle if you need to."

Returning to my monitors, I checked over each of them for any errors that may have been caused, or if the system was in need of a proper reboot. One anomaly above all stood out the most—the ship's blip had vanished. "Captain, I've got no signature on radar of the hailing tanker."

"Try and pan your screen out, maybe you zoomed the screen in by accident when that wave hit us," he replied.

Glancing down, I reached a hoof to the minus-symbol on the keyboard, tapping it intermittently, panning the radar scan out as far as it would allow. The only other blips visible still were those of the other ships in the fleet, keeping a tight line in front of and behind us.

"No signature visible, Captain," I repeated, looking back up over the tops of the monitors.

"Did you pan out?"

"Yes, sir," I nodded. "Nothing, not a trace."

"Captain!" Vernon called out, a hoof on the outside of one of his headset speakers. "It's them. Another distress call has been sent out. I'll play it," he said, pressing a switch on the transponder, playing through for all to hear.

Initially, the message began with faint static, and muffled rumbles of thunder, as well as what sounded to be chaotic chatter in the background.

"This... this is the P.T.S. Alder, mayday, mayday, mayday. We have lost all forms of power, using backup generators to patch through to any ships in the area. To anypony who can hear my voice, we are in desperate need of help. Storm surge is swamping the deck, we have no engines, and manual controls are completely unresponsive. Say again, we are in need of help."

"P.T.S..." Shadow muttered, momentarily pondering the initials. "Prench Trading Ship, or tanker, either one. They were likely sailing to Manehattan or Alderneigh when they got caught up in the storm, too."

Flicking a little switch to turn off the speakers, Vernon fixed his eyes on the earth pony captain. "What do we do, sir? We can't not come to their aid."

Tacimo stood up, taking a few steps closer to Shadow. "Now, hang on. If they have backup generators running, surely they have enough juice to work with long enough until they can get their turbines going again."

"I imagine, in this weather, such a task is easier said than done, Senior Chief," Sea added.

"Captain, what are your thoughts?" Vernon asked, gently gripping the edge of the desk as the ship bobbed hard a second time to prevent from falling backwards. "He said their deck is taking on water. They cannot keep it from flooding the lower decks for long, sir, and without power, their pumps are rendered useless, too."

"Generator power is partitioned off to pumps in the event of a hull breach, Petty Officer," Tacimo sternly said.

"Not in all cases. Mind you, sir, this is a Prench ship we are discussing here. We do not know what kind, or how old this one even is. They need our help."

"If we have fared this well in hurricane—excuse me—category two hurricane conditions, and have also suffered a loss of power, they can, as well. We will continue our current heading until we are out of this literal shitstorm."

"If the Alder is forced to abandon ship, Captain, in this weather, chances of survival in a crisis are dwindling as it is. There will be no use for lifeboats whatsoever, it is too dangerous."

"Shadow, we are not the Coast Guard. We don't perform rescue operations for them."

Vernon turned to the senior officer, scowling. "You are comfortable with the idea of abandoning helpless ponies in the middle of gale-force winds, Senior Chief? Who in their right mind even considered giving you such a rank?!"

"You watch your tone, son, I do not appreciate it," Tacimo responded, returning the glare and pointing the pen in his hoof at the unicorn.

"I refuse to let this slip by like it is nothing—"

"Quiet! Both of you!" bellowed Shadow, silencing the two instantly. A look of daggers from the captain danced between either sailors. "Vernon, keep your tone down on my bridge."

Tacimo gave a sly smirk at the unicorn, who returned with a sharp glare. Evidently, Shadow just happened to notice the glance, turning to the senior officer.

"Tacimo, you do not give orders while I am present. Is that clear?" Shadow added, retaining his roughened tone, immediately and entirely wiping the senior officer's grin away.

Grimacing, Tacimo nodded once. "Yes, Captain."

"Excellent," Shadow returned the nod. "Everypony, back to their stations. Except for you, Star."

Just as I had turned around, I froze, glancing across my shoulder. "Sir?"

Shadow sauntered over, I shifted to face him. His stoic posture remained unwavered, even now. "I need for you to fly out to that ship. By now, the night shift should be coming in, and he will take your place for the time being, like normal."

"Due to present conditions, however, some compromises will have to be made. You will not have immediate helo extract. The moment the last of you drop in is when it will return. We will try to close the gap as best as we can, just in case."

I blinked twice, eyes widened. "Y-you want me to go to the Alder, Captain?" I gestured a hoof over my chest.

Shadow gave a single nod. "Seeing as you are most qualified for the mission, as is your platoon mate on the ship, we will assemble a team for you two. I won't give the details without them in the room, so, head below deck, find Lance Corporal Nightpath, and perhaps Corporal Ashfall if you run across him."

I nodded once in understanding. "Yes, Captain. Will do. Where do we meet?"

"Hangar bay, where the chopper will be waiting. You will see us when you walk in. Get to it, Marine."

I nodded a second time, briefly throwing up a salute, then trotting out of the bridge and down the stairs to find Nightpath.

***

Without a question asked, we made our way up one level to the hangar, the extensive floor between the ship's living quarters and every other room, and the flight deck, in the center of the ship with room to spare around it

Neither of us have previously been through this section of the carrier, not that we have had any reason to prior to now. Although it still turned out to be exactly as the two of us expected, both myself and Nightpath were met with shock and awe at the sheer size of the bay that, from our standpoint, seemed to go on forever, from bow to stern.

It filled mostly with closely-parked jets, the outer halves of their wings folded upwards for easier storage, far more than I knew were capable of fitting in this room, especially with how many already sat on the flight deck on a normal day.

Now, most of those aircraft had been moved down here, as evident by various puddles sitting beneath a few of them with water still dripping off the wingtips and fuselages. The majority of them parked near the elevator to the flight deck. Even now, one last jet rolled off into the hangar, its wings just raising as a small tug vehicle steadily pulled it to an empty space against another rain-drenched fighter.

As a pair of walking mechanics passed, I spotted Shadow standing near the tail rotor of a grey-painted UH-60, the word 'NAVY' in bold black on the side of it. He glanced in our direction, waving in a gesture for us to come over, which we did, him walking with us around the chopper to a small table, where Anchorage, Ashfall, Silver, and another Marine stood.

"Well, then, now that everypony is here, let's get to work," he began, stopping at one side of the table, the four of us surrounding it on the opposite end. Shadow glanced to me and Night. "The two of you will accompany Corporal Ashfall, Lance Corporal Silver Edge, and Sergeant Sunset Haze. The sergeant will be in command, so follow his orders closely, and do not skip a beat."

"As myself and Star are already very much aware of, a tanker by the name of the Prench Trading Ship Alder has run into electrical trouble, likely with this weather to blame. Without their engines, they are practically a three-hundred thousand-ton raft at the storm's will."

Shadow moved his gaze over to the only other sailor among us. "Petty Officer Anchorage shall accompany you to install the transmitter and try to restore power to the Alder. Above every pony on this ship, he knows best with technology. But, help him with anything he may ask you to do."

He examined each of us slowly, thoroughly. "Mind you, they are not aware that you are coming, so you must be weary if they so attempt to defend their ship, which they very well might. Engage only if you are engaged. Keep your weapons hot, but by all means necessary, show you mean no harm to them. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Captain," we each responded in unison.

"Excellent," Shadow nodded once. "You will be roping down from the helo, as well. The pilots will try to angle you out of the wind as best as they can, perhaps in front of the bridge or another obstruction where the gusts will not be as intense. If everything goes to plan, it should be a piece of cake from here on out. Any questions?"

Author's Note:

I've decided to retitle this chapter as part one rather than two, seeing as the last chapter had very little to do with this mini-climax.