We’d been at sea for what seemed like forever. Our comrades falling around us. We must have had the prime position. It seemed like as soon as we radioed someone to see if they were still afloat and well, they were sinking fast only seconds later.
It was chaos inside the vessel. We were just trying to stay alive at this point. Strategy was not an option, we were using every survival method we could think of. The captain called down asking how many were still afloat.
“Eleven!” I called back, “But they’re dropping like flies!”
“Somebody contact Jim and see if he’s still afloat,” the captain said.
“Captain, Jim went down two ships before our last air craft carrier, I’m sorry.”
Jim was the captain’s brother, and a good man.
I contacted the base on land and told them our situation. I was ordered to stay alive and blast the enemy out of the sea. Easier said than done. It was like the ships had minds of their own. We were in a war that no one was going to come out on top of.
By the time we had evaded serious damage and had repaired what was already done, we found ourselves out of transmission with the base and our allies. Somehow we had lost our radio and the only thing guiding us was the grid we all knew in our hearts. Captain come down and gave us the plan of action.
“The last I had heard there were only four of our guys still giving hell out there, and five of theirs,” Captain reported. “We’ve got to blow their main vessels out of there and have the Guppies running scared.” “Without that position behind the rocks they are open to all our guns. Find a way in there!”
I found a way to weaken their position. We were going to come straight at them, and set out our patrol boat for the back position. It was dangerous, and more lives were going to be lost, but it had to be done. They would never expect us to come head on. Nobody would. It’s suicide.
We loaded the patrol boat with as much fire power as it could safely carry, and half of our men. There was no time for “good-byes” or “tell my girl I love her” speeches. I told them to set their frequency to eight just in case we got our radio back up and then they were off.
We got our radios working and about twenty minutes later they radioed in their position. It was time for us to strike. We lightened our load as much as we could and threw the ship into full throttle. We couldn’t really worry about the guys on the patrol boat anymore. I told them to go down proud and fighting and that was our last transmission. We headed at the enemy and took out two more of their boats on the way.
We had two ships left, they had two left. It was a battle till the death. Only one of us was going to return to our homes and families. I wasn’t going to let it be them.
About an hour into the fight our brother ship had fallen and we were a far cry from victorious. It seemed as though we had loaded the rest of our ammo and already shot off more than half. We didn’t have much left. The captain told us he had never felt more honored to fight next to such dedicated men, and ordered us to die like honorable men do.
We charged their last two ships and fought like heroes do. We only had one missile left and no idea what they were holding. We fired it and took out one more ship. They had one left standing.
“That was our last missile Captain!” I shouted.
“We don’t need a missile, we are one,” Captain replied.
I knew what he meant, so I told the men to pray and we headed at them with fire and fury in our hearts. They fired on us and by the time we made it to them we were nearly sunk. In a last ditch effort we rammed them and damaged their boat enough to send them under.
Our ship was filled with victorious cries as we heard one ominous voice that was God-like.
“You sunk my battleship!” it cried.
“Hah! I win. Set up for a new game,” shouted another voice.
Our ship was tossed into victory, and suddenly we were back where we started, seventeen ships on either side of the world going to battle. We couldn’t explain it, we never tried. All we did was fight, watch our comrades fall again, and do our best to stay alive.