The Detective Turned Smuggler

by Lamasioux

Chapter 14

April 1st, 1010

Lauri stared out the window towards the boat with a few other deer beside him who also looked on. It was the Changeling destroyer that had been searching for them, alone, some kilometers away, with its two turrets turning towards them.

The bridge was silent for a few seconds before Lauri broke it, “This is it. Our final challenge. The final blockade to our escape to Equestria and the survival of the queen. Us and them. The only two options we have now are to either die with our ship or live.” Lauri paused again and let his words process through everydeers mind before saying in a quiet tone, “Let us prepare.” He then took a deep breath, turned around and looked at the deer on the bridge, nearly all of them were looking at him. He didn’t say anything else though. He just walked back to his normal position.

By the time Lauri made it back where he had been, another deer said, “Incoming fire!”

“Straight ahead now!” Lauri shouted.

Word was sent quickly to the engineers and the boat quickly halted its turning and started to go straight. Every shell that had been fired at the Sammakko then missed. One of the shells came so close to hitting that when it hit the water, it sent water flying up onto the bridge’s windows.

“Sending an alert to the whole ship now! We’ll be getting everydeer on station, ready for whatever.” A deer said. They unfortunately hadn’t done this moments earlier when the Changeling ship had first been seen.

It was a miracle that neither ship saw each other before then as the Changeling destroyer had only started to have its two turrets turn towards the Sammakko a few seconds after being spotted.

“The 105 crew is already ready. They’re rotating the turret now.”

“Why hadn’t the alarm sounded when the ship was first spotted?” A deer asked.

“There’s no time to worry about any mistakes now.” Lauri quickly shouted, “Just do what you think is best.”

“Enemy ship fired again!”

Just then, the Sammakko’s 105 turret opened fire, sending her first round towards the enemy boat.

“Don’t have our turret stop. Tell them not to worry about ammunition. Their only concern is to hit the enemy as many times as possible.” Lauri said.

It was the last thing he said before the enemy fire finally hit.

Three of the shells overshot while one hit one of the antennas that were atop, destroying it.

“All rounds missed!” A deer quickly said.

Lauri could only think about the disadvantage they had right now against the Changeling boat. It had two turrets, both with two guns each while the Sammakko had a single turret with one gun. They didn’t know what other weaponry the enemy had and the only two other things that the Sammakko had was a single AA gun and two depth charges.

“Turn us towards the enemy boat and take us towards them. We’re going to skim right past them to the point we see their pupils.” Lauri said to everyone on the bridge, “We’re going to blow their fucking ship in half with depth charges.”

And like that, half the deer on the bridge turned their heads and looked at Lauri as if he was insane.

“Wh- What?”

“Full speed. Have the charges set for only a few feet.” Lauri added.

“Enemy ship hit!” A deer then yelled out.

Lauri had his eyes closed to avoid looking at anydeer before saying, “There’s no other chance at winning.”

Then two shells suddenly hit. One hit near the side armor of the ship while the other plowed through one of the chimneys, punching a hole through it before going into the ocean.

Lauri suddenly opened his eyes after the sudden hit and quickly slammed his hoof down, “There’s no time!”

The deer who were still looking back at Lauri quickly sent orders throughout the ships after Lauri’s demand. The rest had turned back around to work after the ship was hit.

Lauri stared out the window at the turret upfront as it fired off another shot before muttering, “Let’s at least kill another ship before we die…”

“Incoming fire again!”

“Ignore it! All I want us focused on is making sure we get those charges sent here in a few minutes.” Lauri said, “Make sure we have crew getting them ready.”

“There’s a fire in the ship from where we were hit!”

“You don’t need to tell me everything right now, we have procedures, follow them.” Lauri said.

The deer who yelled that quickly got to work with monitoring more important things.

“Enemy ship is five kilometers away. If they don’t try and run, we should pass them in four-ish minutes.”

“Just keep us full speed, time the charges to blow right when they pass over.” Lauri said.

“They’re going to broadside us…” Somedeer said.

---

“Fucking five minute--” Gareth quickly turned and yelled out to Mitja, “We have five minutes to get both depth charges ready!” Gareth listened to the phone again before putting it up and quickly turning around and running with Mitja and Uriel.

Mitja and Uriel continued on outside while Gareth stopped by a room on their way by and told the deer inside, “Bridge wants us to deploy both depth charges! We have four minutes!” There was only a half-second of hesitation from the deer before they quickly started to scramble.

Gareth didn’t wait a second either before quickly leaving the room and following the path Mitja and Uriel had taken. It only took him a few seconds before he finally reached a door that led to the outside deck.

The first thing Gareth noticed upon getting outside was the sound of the front turret firing. It was loud and concussive even with how far back he was, but he, like many of the other sailors, had grown used to it during the first few months of the war.

Gareth didn’t wait around though, he quickly made his way to the back of the boat where the two depth charges were, also where Mitja and Uriel were, they were already preparing one of the charges.

Just about as Gareth got to the two, four other deer showed up on the other side of the boat, where the other depth charge was kept.

The boat had been stripped as best as it could while also maintaining the balance of it still to help maximize speed.

---

“We have crew readying the charges now.” Said the deer who was looking down the boat towards the stern.

“Wai-” Lauri quickly looked over at the deer before looking around and asking, “We need someone to tell them when to drop the charges. They don’t have any phones back there.” Lauri then quickly looked back towards the deer who had been keeping watch for the crew and said, “Go back there to tell them when to drop the charges.”

“When do they drop?” The deer asked.

“We only need one to hit, so stagger them by eight seconds.” Lauri then waved his hoof at the deer, “Go! Go, quick. We only have two minutes or so now.”

The deer waited for no other instructions and left right away.

Just then the Sammakko was hit again by two more shells, this time in the upper bow and the lower bow, neither of the hits hitting near the waterline.

“Fourth hit on us. We’ve hit them two times.” The deer monitoring the 105 turret said.

“Let’s hope they miss more.” Lauri whispered.

---

Ardashir was geared up in fire uniform, leading three other deer into the fire that was ahead. They were responding for fire control to the shells that had hit the bow a few seconds ago. They were on standby for any fires like this.

Ardashir finally met with the door that had smoke seeping through it from the damage it had taken upon being hit. He dropped the hose he had been dragging and tried his best to open the door without potentially burning himself. It didn’t work though, so one of the deer that were following handed him the crowbar they had and Ardashir used it to pry open the door, which did work.

Upon the door opening, large amounts of smoke started to flow out into the hallway the four deer were in.

Almost immediately, one of the deer behind him had picked up the hose as Ardashir had pried the door open, turned it on and started sending the pressurized water into the room through the opening.

“It’s on the left side, the fire!” Ardashir said for the deer. He then moved out of the way so the deer could have full access to the door, as well as to get fresh air after being hit in the face with smoke.

“We’re going to need to use the other door, it’s around the corner with another hose nearby!” Maarten said, “I'll stay here with Matko.”

Ardashir agreed and took the fourth deer with him to go to the other entrance.

---

Mitja quickly looked up and saw the enemy ship ahead, which was also heading straight towards them.

“Oh fuckin’, they’re going to torpedo us.” Mitja shouted.

Gareth looked up for a second towards the enemy ship but the deer running from the bridge towards them caught his eye instead.

“Eight seconds apart! The depth charges!” The deer said.

Uriel quickly yelled out towards the deer on the other side who were prepping the charge, “EIGHT SECONDS! WE’RE FIRST!”

One of the deer yelled back after hearing the order, “Eight second delay! You first!”

Uriel then looked at Mitja and Gareth and said, “Well boys, looks like we’ll be dropping first.”

---

“They’re aiming their torpedo launchers!” The deer who was looking through binoculars yelled.

Lauri quickly stood up and rushed over to the deer who had made the callout and took some binoculars to look as well before he pointed over at the deer who was in charge of the turret communications and said, “Tell the turret to aim for their tubes! They’re going to broadside us with torpedoes!”

The deer quickly sent the request to the turret before giving Lauri confirmation that it was.

Lauri then quickly looked back out of the window, watching the 105 have a delay to its firing as it took aim before it did. Lauri watched the enemy ship through binoculars to see if the round would hit.

A direct hit.

The first shot hit the launchers but almost immediately upon the enemy's torpedo launchers being destroyed, the Sammakko was hit in the bridge with a shell.

---

Juma and Hla were quickly given the order to now aim for the torpedo launchers on the enemy boat. It took them a second to aim the turret after adjusting from his previous target and once they did, Juma fired the gun.

Within the blink of an eye, they had seen if they had hit or missed, and to their surprise as they looked through the aiming sites, they hit.

“Just like that! You fucking see that shit!” Juma yelled out.

“We need to aim again, keep yourself collected man!” Hla spat out at Juma, who then quickly recollected himself and started aiming the turret again.

Just then they felt the ship vibrate from being hit again. Neither of them paid any attention to it as they were almost nearing ready to fire again.

They wouldn’t be able to aim to where they wanted to as the enemy ship was passing by so close, they couldn’t turn the turret fast enough, nor could the bow turret of the enemy ship.

---

“It’s time! It’s time! Ready to drop them!” Gareth said quickly.

The bows of the two ships were seconds away from passing each other.

Gareth, Mitja and Uriel quickly started to push the depth charge over the back of the boat. The equipment to drop or throw them had been removed for weight unfortunately.

Right before they could toss it over, the deer who had come from the bridge joined in to help and two seconds later the charge was dropped into the water.

After seven seconds the other team also dropped theirs into the water, right as the enemy ship was passing by the midpoint of the Sammakko.

There was nothing left for the deer to do now so they all quickly trotted back to the ship so they could get inside.

Mitja was the second to reach one of the doors that led inside, right as the stern turret of the enemy ship fired both of its guns at the Sammakko, both hitting the area of the ship that the depth charge crew was running into.

Gareth hadn’t made it inside when the ship was hit but he quickly stumbled backwards upon the shells hitting, falling over.

After what seemed like minutes, Gareth stood up, looking in the direction of the enemy destroyer just as the first charge went off near its bow and as the water from the first charge reached its maximum height, the second charge went off near the stern of the ship. Both depth charges hit the destroyer.

That though, was all a blur to Gareth as he was quickly looking back towards the Sammakko at the entrance the other deer had been using and seeing it had been blown to shreds.

---

Lauri opened his eyes and instantly had a blank mind for a second as he collected himself trying to remember what was going on. He then felt another deer touching him, at which he looked around for them, where he saw a deer standing before him.

“Admiral! F- Thank the gods.” The deer said.

Lauri then got up and looked around him, seeing the bridge of the ship having a massive hole in its right side.

“I already checked you. You’re not hurt.” The deer over Lauri said.

“What--” Lauri was looking around still, trying to find other deer, “What about the crew? Are they ok?” Lauri finally had his footing and saw other deer, some on the ground, some standing, shaking off the hit.

“One is dead, but three are injured. We just sent word to the medical team to come up.” The deer said.

Lauri was walking towards the right side of the bridge to look out the hole that was there, trying to spot the enemy destroyer, “The enemy?”

He didn’t need to wait for a reply as he saw the ship behind them, listing already. The disturbance of the water from the depth charges could still be seen.

Lauri then saw the back of the ship smoking a bit from where the depth charge crew was at. That wasn’t his concern right now as he saw the turret on the stern of the enemy ship turning towards them.

“We need to turn! We need our turret to fire on the enemy!” Lauri shouted. It didn’t matter though because after a few seconds, the Changeling destroyer went up in a puff of smoke upon exploding.

The shockwave took a second to reach the bridge, at which Lauri and nearly every deer on the bridge reacted to.

---

Gareth was trying to tend to his buds and the other deer who had been hit by shrapnel from when the shells hit but was suddenly interrupted by the exploding destroyer behind them.

The shockwave pushed Gareth and a few other deer down, as well as making them deaf for a moment.

They quickly got up and looked at the cloud of smoke that was above the enemy. The enemy's boat was tilting quickly now, the deck of the boat was now starting to go into the water all while the few specs of Changeling bugs were running about and floating in the water about the ship.

Gareth was quickly interrupted from the show as a deer tapped on him to get his attention. It was one of the deer from the other depth charge crew. They were trying to motion for him to help with dragging the bodies of the other deer away from the area due to the fire that was getting bigger.

Gareth quickly realized that and went to help, all while a few more deer had come out from the ship elsewhere and were getting a hose ready to find and attack the fire that had been reported.

---

“Let’s get ourselves back on track! Fastest we’re able to towards Equestria! Ignore the Changeling boat.” Lauri then said to the crew on the bridge.

A few of the deer were getting back on their stations, making sure everything was working still before sending word to the ship.

“Damage control needs to be working at 100%. Let’s make sure none of our holes kill us.” Lauri made his way over to the injured deer and said, “I’m going to help these guys, just get us out of here.” Lauri then started to quickly assist the medical team who just now arrived with getting the injured to the medical center.

---

Juma and Hla finished rotating the gun towards the direction of the enemy ship and saw the destruction finally.

“There it is Hla! WE DID IT! Those sons of a bitches are fucking dead! WE FUCKING DID IT!” Juma was celebrating beyond control while Hla was sitting back relaxed after seeing it himself as well.

“...” Hla said.

Juma pointed at the gun and said, “WE DID IT HLA! We didn’t die!”

Hla looked over at Juma and had a smile grow on his face as Juma’s excitement rubbed off on him, “We actually did it. I- I can’t believe it. With a single 105 we did it…” Hla slumped back and looked at the controls of the gun before shaking his head in disbelief.

The adrenalin rush in him and Juma peaked and now started to decline after they realized what happened. The same for every deer on the boat who came to learn of what just happened would slowly relax. At least those who weren’t actively trying to make sure the ship didn’t catch fire and ran.

Author's Note:

welcome to the world of naval battles where the writer doesn't know anything about naval battles or anything naval related

i hope you enjoyed it :)

Comments

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter