To Sail a Darkling Sea

“Time to go,” Faith said. “Hold the fort here, sister dear.”

“Will do,” Sophia said. “Do not get in a scrum, Faith.”

“No way in hell dressed like this,” Faith said.

Faith and Januscheitis followed Kirby up then took defensive positions while Derek and Bearson manhandled the MG240 over the side. They weren’t sure they were going to need it, but if they did they were really going to need it.

The ship’s deck was half filled with cargo containers with narrow passages alongside them.

“We’ll hang here while you guys sweep,” Januscheitis said. “Try to keep the noise down.”

“Will do,” Derek said. “Come on, Bear.”

“Kirby, on me,” Pagliaro said.

“I don’t like this,” Faith said, making a moue. “I should be clearing.”

“We’re here as a back-up and to manage, Lieutenant,” Januscheitis said.

“I know my job, Staff Sergeant,” Faith said. “Doesn’t mean I like it.”

There was a burst of 5.56 fire from forward.

“One clear,” Derek radioed. “Presence so far is limited.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t bring them up the gangway,” Januscheitis said.

The two plans they’d discussed had been “find the gangway, set up the defense point, then sweep” or ”sweep, then find the gangway. ” Sweep then find the gangway gave them the option of retreating to the boat if there were too many infected aboard. If they penetrated across the boat, they risked getting cut off and surrounded. So they went with the, hopefully, sensible plan.

There were two shots from.45, aft and from what sounded like the far side of the boat.

“Clear up to the bridge,” Pagliaro radioed. “But that’s got some of the infected over-side interested. I… Yeah, guy’s heading up the gangway.”

“That cuts it,” Faith said, picking up two boxes of ammo. “Hold the gangway,” she radioed. “We’re on our way. You gonna pick up the machine gun, Staff Sergeant, or just stand there?”

“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Januscheitis said as there was another burst of fire from aft.

“Better hurry, they’re starting the party.”

* * *

Faith dropped a box of ammo and fired offhand into an infected that had reared up out of the shadows. The few infected who had found hidey-holes on the deck of the ship were moving to the continuous crackle of fire from aft.

“Leavin’ that,” Faith said, keeping her side-arm in her hand.

“Concur,” Januscheitis said. He had the MG on a sling over his shoulder and his 1911 in his hand. He wasn’t going to try to use the MG in tight quarters surrounded by steel containers.

They followed a set of stairs aft then came in sight of the embattled team. Both were leaning over the side of the ship, firing down.

“Hello, we’re your friendly reinforcements,” Januscheitis said, leaning over the side to check the conditions.

Infecteds from throughout the container yard were closing on the sound of the fire and the flock of birds that had descended on fresh carrion. Crows and ravens might be smart enough to bank away from a fire-fight but seagulls carried on regardless.

The infecteds, by sheer weight of numbers, were starting to push their way up the gangway.

“Oh, that’s just not happening,” Januscheitis said, unlimbering the MG and setting it on the bulwark. He fired a burst into the group of infected trying to force their way onto the gangway and tumbled a half a dozen to the ground.

Faith leaned out and looked both ways then frowned.

“Division, Division, Ground Team One, over.”

“Division, over.”

“Should have thought of this earlier. We’ve got infected coming from in the yard. We also have them coming from fore and aft the vessel. Could you lay in gunboats fore and aft to manage that, over?”

“Roger. Redeploying at this time.”

“Break, break, forward team. Status?”

“Not finding many customers, over.”

“Sweep back to the boarding point. Get the technical personnel. Bring them up here and pick up any ammo along the way, over.”

“Sweep to boarding point, aye. Get technical personnel, aye. Move to gangway with technical personnel picking up ammo, aye.”

“Command, out. Pag, ammo.”

“Roger, ma’am,” the lance corporal said, taking the box and pulling out the links to ammo up the MG.

“Kirby, head back to the boarding point,” Faith said. “Pick up the ammo pile there. Keep alert, this thing might not be fully cleared.”

“Aye, aye, skipper,” Kirby said then dashed off.

Faith walked aft then leaned over the side to engage the infected who were managing to get onto the gangway through the fire of the MG.

“Pag, while you’re handling the ammo, keep an eye on our six,” Faith yelled. “But don’t shoot the tech.”

“Can I shoot Derek, ma’am?” Pagliaro asked.

“No,” Faith said.

“Check six, aye. Do not shoot friendlies, aye.”

* * *

“We don’t have time to drop anchor and get stable,” Chen said over the intercom. “You’ll have to fire on the fly.”

“Not an issue, sir,” Gunner’s Mate Second Class Mcgarity said, pressing the butterfly of the modified BMG. The big rounds tumbled infecteds closing on the freighter to the ground. The platform was a lot more stable than a moving Abrams main battle tank, which was his normal platform of choice and tracking around as it drifted was no big deal. He fired a moment longer then reached on hand up to key the intercom. “Sir, could you pull this thing in closer? Like, real close to the pier?”

“You’re getting them from here, Gunner’s Mate.”

“But if we get in close, I can engage the ones closing through the yard, sir. I’ll have the angle. They might try to jump and swim aboard, but we’ve got rifles, sir, and there’s sharks.”

“Make sense,” Chen said, putting the boat into reverse and backing towards the pier. “Try not to hit the cranes. One, we may need them someday. Two, while those rounds will go into a container, they will bounce off a crane.”

“Roger, sir,” Mcgarity said. “Or would that be an aye, aye, thing?”

“That would be an aye, aye, thing,” Chen said.

“Aye, aye, sir.”

* * *

“Oh, sweet,” Pagliaro said as.50 caliber BMG rounds started tearing up the closing infected. When the massive “anti-material” rounds hit, most of the infected literally exploded from hydrostatic shock. The majority of the rounds then continued on to hit any infected on the far side.

“Except for the bouncers,” Januscheitis said. A tracer round that had already passed through two infected hit the reinforced corner of a container, bounced off, hit the side of the ship then caromed wildly into the distance. “But, yeah, direct fire MaDeuce support is always a welcome sight. Now if we just had some tanks. Those are sweet.”

“Friendlies,” Pag said as pretty much everyone else arrived at once.

“Oh, this is just so much more fun than I’d expected,” Dougherty said.

“We ran into an infected on the way,” Derek said, dropping two boxes of MG ammo to the deck.

“We’ve got this,” Faith said. “Kirby, hump ammo from the boat. Derk, Bear, go make sure we’re clear otherwise. Topside and close all hatches. We’ll worry about belowdecks when we have to. Tech, can you get the