Chapter 19
“Left! Left! Left-right! Right-left! Left!” Twilight called out the marching cadence as the 3rd Marines went through drill maneuvers. Eventually, the regiment wound its way to the parade ground. “Halt!” They stopped. She flew to a lower-level balcony of the Great Hall (erected per Alden’s request) and smiled. From what Alden had taught her, drill was an excellent way of measuring the discipline of a group. Hers was perfect.
“Regiment, atten-shun!” She paused for a moment, gauging the troops. “At ease. This might take a while.
“As you all know, I’ve been your commanding officer for the last couple of days, which, to be frank, is my trial period, so I’d say it’s going well. In case you got hit in the head or something and don’t recognize me--” there were some chuckles “--my name is Twilight Sparkle. Princess Twilight Sparkle. Of Equestria. And just like the destroyermen’s America, Equestria has an elite force as well--we call them the Royal Guards. They have defended Princess Celestia for a thousand years, expanding their duties to the other princesses, including me, as we joined the ranks of royalty. I’ve asked Sergeant Alden about this, and he has agreed to form our regiment into one of the Royal Guards on the condition that we stick to Marine regulation.
“Basically, we’re going to be better than the others, so let’s get started.” Cheers. “But it makes our schedule harder. It’ll take longer for us to train because we’re doing two different regimens at the same time, but I believe in you.” Her smile turned grim. Quietly, she turned to her executive officer, a short, young, brown female Lemurian named Verun-Kanas, “Let’s get this started.”
Verun looked up at her commander. Her tiny sapphire eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun. “What do we do, Princess?”
Twilight blinked, realizing that Verun had no clue what the Guards were. “This is going to be harder than I thought,” she mumbled to herself. “Well, Verun-Kanas,” she said, louder this time, “we start with trust. Every Guard must be able to trust with absolute certainty that his of her fellow Guards will be there to help, even more so than Alden’s Marines. We have the discipline. We need the trust.”
“How do we get that, Princess?”
“Do you trust me to lead, Verun-Kansas--I mean, Verun-Kanas?”
“Um, well, I don’t know you very well, so I, uh, can’t really say, Princess.”
Twilight bent over a little to get down to Verun’s eye level. “It helps to know the person on a more friendly level. You don’t need to use my title, Verun, just my name.”
“If you say so, Twilight, ma’am.” Verun nervously looked down.
Twilight buried her face in her hands.
-------------------------
The next morning, Matt grimaced and took another sip of Juan’s “coffee.” Having been kept awake all night by the engineering division’s antics with the magic-rebuilt number one boiler, being captain was the last thing he wanted to do. Bags weren’t hanging from his eyes, but he looked completely worn out. He’d caught himself napping in his chair on the bridge earlier, which was what drove him to have Juan bring some coffee. Somehow, the stubborn Filipino insisted that his brews were excellent.
Gray, almost impeccable in his blue Navy utility uniform, watched Silva’s crew on their gun drills. While parts for the big gunner’s mate’s number three gun were in the shop, he practiced on number one, directly in view of the bridge. The men competently went through the motions, reset, and restarted. Matt saw Gray turn away, apparently satisfied, and begin inspecting Walker’s new paint job. Mr. Garrett had somehow found a stockpile of white paint base, and after explaining its necessity to Nakja-Mur, turned it over to the Chief.
Matt stood and stepped out onto the starboard bridge wing, overlooking the bay. It really was a beautiful sight. The water, clear of industrial waste, was a perfect blue, and without mines to mar its soft, lapping waves (fishing boats, however, dotted the bay). Dense jungle provided a green backdrop to the natural harmony of the local ecosystem--dammit, Courtney--which was teeming with life. If it weren’t for the flashies, he’d let the part of the crew that wasn’t on duty jump in and swim around. In the back of his mind, he registered the drone of an aircraft.
A sudden blast of steam alerted him to the number four stack. Sooty black smoke and white fluffy steam billowed from the cantankerous boiler and settled to the deck.
“Goddamn snipes! There’s fresh paint up here!” Gray immediately bellowed, striding aft.
Matt grinned as the event unfolded, but lost his smile when it reminded him why they had ‘Cat snipes aboard. If they hadn’t lost so many, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but Walker needed a full complement.
Sandra came up beside him. “It’s alright. I’m sure they understand.” Her ears idly searched for the source of the drone.
“I guess they would,” he admitted, looking back at the water.
Across the bay happened to be the spot he’d procured for Twilight’s magic tests. As Sandra leaned on the rail beside him, a small shockwave grabbed his attention. The area was covered in a quickly-dissipating purple haze. Another shockwave came, producing a similar haze, but this time, he knew what caused it: the three-inch gun was firing magical rounds into the sky. A third shot, aimed well south of the first two, disappeared behind a cloud and blew up like a firework. A fourth and fifth refined the aiming further, and the sixth shot landed in the water a couple miles south. Like all of the other rounds, it exploded into a fireworks display of purple magic.
The general alarm began to sound. Larry Dowden clonked onto the bridge wing, panting. “Captain, aircraft!” Down the way, he shouted: “General quarters! This is not a drill. All hands, man your battle stations!”
The deck instantly became a flurry of activity. Ordnance strikers ferried ammunition to the machine guns as ‘Cats and men scampered. Matt clambered up the ladder to the fire-control platform and took Felts’ offered of binoculars.
Gray also raced to fire control since Garrett was on the other side of the bay. After a second of scanning the sky, he found the plane. “There, sir. Aft, bearing one two oh! It’s coming right up from the strait.”
“I see it. Stand by the guns, Chief, but hold your fire.”
“What is it?” Sandra asked. “Hostile?”
“I don’t think so.” Matt lowered his binoculars. “PBY.”
Apparently, Twilight and Garrett couldn’t identify the plane, because a loud bang echoed from their testing ground. Their shot hit the PBY in the wing, completely ripping a good foot of metal right off. Garrett must have recognized it before they fired again, because there no more shots.
The plane nearly spun out of control, but its pilot was experienced. Its altitude dropped. Only one engine was running, and the lost wing area only imbalanced it more. It grazed over the forest of masts by the docks, splashing into the surface a few hundred yards out. Safely landed, its pilot motored over to Walker’s starboard side.
A young man plopped next to Matt with a startled cry.
“Mr. Garrett, what happened?”
“Well, sir, we heard the plane, but we couldn’t see it. Miss Twilight decided to use her magic to find it, and we blew its wing off. Then I saw it and stopped her from firing again. She teleported me here.”
“Where is she now?”
“Behind the flying boat, sir.” He pointed to the figure of a woman pushing the seaplane towards Walker. The engine’s tremendous roar died, and the windscreen sild open to reveal a bearded man.
Matt pursed his lip. “Mr. Gray, see to it that Nakja-Mur, Naga, Keje, and Adar come aboard. We’ll see who our mystery aviator is, and then I’ll have a talk with Twilight about aircraft recognition. Once our hosts arrive, we’ll hold a meeting in the wardroom and find out how the hell a PBY ended up here.”
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9611446
That's awesome! Destroyermen is a really good series, and I only ever picked it up because I saw a ship that looked like it was from WWII. I do not regret my decision.
And Mallory is up, that is going to be real interesting.
9611446
When in doubt Amazon. I myself don't technically have the books on paper, apart from the first book, I have the whole series as audiobooks instead.
whats a pby?
9612781
A PBY "Flying Boat" is a WWII-era seaplane. Guess I didn't make that apparent enough in the story. My fault.
Well I like the update. I looks nice.
Who's Sandra? Why introduced so suddenly
9612104
Amazob doesn't do books overseas or to some states. My case, essentially, any used/old book especially
9624350
I did that thing again where I forget to reintroduce a character after not using him/her for a while. She is Nurse Lieutenant Sandra Tucker, one of the passengers aboard Walker when they went through the Squall (which happens before the start of the story). She's one of the central characters in the actual Destroyermen series.
Your question confused me for a minute, as my Google Doc with the story currently has 85 separate instances of "Sandra" spread throughout its 93 pages (as of now). Once I looked at it, though, your question makes sense. I haven't used Sandra in a couple of chapters and didn't reintroduce her. My mistake.
9624356
Damn, suppose the easiest thing to do is see of you can get the ebook version. But if you're outside the US, then I really don't be have a clue
I realized that Twilight's title as Princess of Friendship is useless in Equestria.
Oh, and Twilight, friendly fire isn't good.
9635316
How so?
9636373
It might have to do with who actually uses the title. As far as I know, the other princesses are the only ones who've really cared. Them and foreign dignitaries.