Book One Chapter Twenty Nine: The Skies of Artemis

Nick and his friends finally get hold of an airship! They take to the skies of Artemis to fly to Hemlon and confront Saja, but they are met with resistance: Enemy Airships!

Chapter Twenty Nine The Skies of Artemis: We sailed upwards for a few more seconds. The airship reached closer to the fluffy white clouds with every passing second. After a few more seconds of ascending, we were above the clouds and we were surrounded by the azure sky on all sides.

“This is amazing!” Fenton yelled from the crow’s nest.

“I have never done anything like this in my life!” Luna shouted.

“It is quite amazing, is it not?” Came Anara’s voice from a loudspeaker.

I then noticed that there was an old fashioned speaker attached to the mass of the crow’s nest.

“In case you all are wondering, I set up this voice amplifier device because it is hard to hear me from almost a hundred feet away with the wind in your ears.” Anara explained, her voice crackling out of the loudspeaker. There were traces of static in the sound waves, but she was still audible.

The voice amplifier device that Anara had said up here on her airship was just like the P.A systems we had at school back on Earth!

We soared upwards for a few more seconds, and then we levelled out and started moving forward. In the distance a few kilometers away, I could see a huge chunk of floating land. That must be Hemlon! In front of Hemlon, I saw three dark specs. They seemed to be growing larger.

“We have company!” Fenton shouted from the crow’s nest.

“What is it, Fenton?” Anna-Maria shouted to Fenton.

“Airships! They are headed straight for us!” Fenton shouted, worry seeped into his voice.

“How many are there?” Luna called up to the crow’s nest.

“Three!” Fenton shouted back.

I turned my attention back to the airships that were getting closer by the second. When they were around two kilometers away, I saw a barrage of smaller dots break off from the three airships. After a few seconds, I heard a series of sharp ping! Sounds. I knew what was happening. Those dots that broke off from the airships were bullets. We were being shot at!

“Gunners! Show them some offense! We are taking fire!” Anara’s voice crackled over the P.A system.

I took the oversized mounted sniper in my hands and put the massive stock to my shoulder. I saw a huge bolt to my right side on the mounted rifle, and on the ground nearby I saw a large box of bullets. Each bullet was half a foot long and a few centimeters wide, coming to a point on the end. I reached down and picked up one of the large bullets and opened the bolt on the rifle. Sure enough, the bolt was empty. I loaded the massive bullet into the chamber and closed the bolt. The chamber only accepted one bullet at a time. I looked through the scope and placed my finger on the trigger of the rifle. I aimed and was presented with a sniper style crosshair. I moved the rifle around on the tripod until I found the three airships. They were still firing at us, but only a few bullets in every spray hit us. They were hitting our hull, which was made of metal so the bullets at the range the enemy airships were firing them from did not penetrate our armor. I took carful aim and focused on the airship to the far right, as the airships were in alignment with each other from left to right. I held the crosshair on the far right ships balloon, after all that is the most vulnerable place on the airship. I tensed my finger on the trigger and pulled it. The resounding gunshot was like the loudest thunder clap I have ever heard. The muzzle of the mounted rifle flared and the recoil of the weapon threw me backwards onto the deck. I landed on my back with a stinging shoulder. I gritted my teeth in pain and clutched my shoulder with my good hand. I looked up to the airship that I had shot in the distance. I had missed the balloon and the massive bullet hit the left side of the ship instead, creating a huge explosion, but the airship remained afloat. The bullets must be explosive tipped.

“Nice shot, Nick! Hit the balloon next time, will you?” Anara’s static filled voice crackled over the P.A system.

“I aimed at the balloon!” I shouted while re-mounting the gun.

“That weapon tends to miss fire at longer ranges, when they get closer you should be able to deal some serious damage!” Anara shouted over the P.A system.

I turned my attention back to the three airships in the distance. They were closer now, only about a kilometer away. I heard my friends begin firing the mounted machine guns. The sharp rat tat tat sound of the machine guns filled the air. From a kilometer away, I could hear the three airships firing at us. Now that they were closer, I could hear more ping! Sounds that marked successful hits on us by the airships.

“Federov! If we keep taking hits like this, we are going to need you to repair some parts!” Anara shouted over the P.A system.

“Aye, aye, captain!” I heard Federov shout from somewhere on deck.

Now that the enemy airships were closer, I reloaded the mounted sniper rifle and put the stock to my shoulder. I took aim on the airship on the far right, placing my crosshair on the balloon. I pulled the trigger. The thunderous gunshot sounded and the muzzle flared. I was prepared for the recoil this time and I did not get knocked back very far. I watched as a large explosion appeared on the enemy airships balloon that I was aiming at. The airship rocked in the sky, but stayed afloat. I saw the flashes of motion that marked bullets flying through the sky. There were bullets being exchanged between our airship and the enemy airships. I heard a series of sharp Ping! Sounds, and then a hiss! Of air.

“Federov! The main engine has been hit, get below deck and get it running again or we won’t stay in the sky much longer!” Anara shouted over the P.A system.

We then stopped moving. I saw Federov running to the staircase that led below deck. If the engine was below deck that must mean that the enemy airships had penetrated our hull armor! I felt the airship lurch beneath me as Anara turned it around, our right side was now facing the enemy airships, and the hole in the hull must have been in the left. I could not aim the mounted sniper at the enemy airships because the tripod’s flexibility ended just before they came into view in the scope. I ran away from the sniper mounted at the bow and ran over to one of the machine guns that was on the right side so I could fire at the enemy airships. I saw Anna-Maria and Luna on two of the mounted machine guns. They were both firing at the enemy airships.

“I am glad that you decided to join the fun!” Luna shouted over the rat tat tat of her machine gun.

“Let us take these vampires out of the sky!” I shouted while mounting the machine gun next to Luna.

“I like your fire!” Luna exclaimed.

I noticed that Carmella and Anna-Maria were both beside Luna on their mounted guns.

I grabbed the handle of the machine gun, putting my finger on the trigger. The gun itself looked like a tommy gun from the old school gangster movies I had watched, it was fitted with a drum style magazine and there were a series of other drum style magazines next to the gun.

We still were not moving, and the enemy airships were drawing closer, still firing at us.

“If Federov does not get our engine repaired, we will be torn to pieces!” Anna-Maria exclaimed in dismay.

“He will get it repaired, he has to.” I reassured her.

I then took aim, placing the enemy airship on the far right of the line and began to fire at its balloon. After a few seconds, there was no change, nothing happened. I resumed firing, and a few seconds later, the airships balloon was engulfed in flames and the airship began to drop out of the sky! It stopped firing at us as it descended towards the ground.

“That leaves two of them left!” Carmella yelled in triumph.

“The fight is not yet over! We are still taking hits and we do not have a functioning engine!” I yelled over the rat tat tat of our machine guns and the ping! Ping! Of our airship being bombarded by bullets.

I took aim at the other airship, the one in the middle, and began firing at it. I then heard a series of sharp Crack! Sounds, and the sound of tearing fabric. My heart sank as I anticipated what that sound meant.

“Our balloon has been hit! Take these airships out of the sky before our balloon collapses!” Anara’s voice crackled over the P.A system.

I then felt the airship lurch beneath us.

“The main engine has been repaired!” Federov shouted, running up the stairs from below deck.

“Federov did it!” Luna yelled in triumph.

“I am turning us around! Someone get on the rearward cannons and deal some damage!” Anara’s voice crackled over the P.A system.

“Aye, aye captain!” Anna-Maria yelled.

She sprinted to the rear of the ship, almost losing her footing as Anara pulled the airship into a tight one hundred eighty degree turn. Now that our back was to the enemy airships, the front mounted gun and the side mounted guns were useless. I remembered that there were two mounted cannons in the back and started to run for them, but Carmella was already running. She reached the stern of the airship in under a minute and mounted the cannon next to Anna-Maria.

“This is it! Take them out of the sky!” Anara’s voice called from over the P.A system.

I heard a few thunderous gunshots from the back of the ship. That is when a few bad things happened; one: I noticed that we were starting to loose altitude at an alarming rate, two: A series of shots from the enemy airships had come forward, past the stern of our ship which was now facing them and landed on the port side of the deck! More shots came and hit the starboard side, and where each shot landed, a small fire erupted. I counted seven fires in all.

“Federov! We need a fire extinguisher here!” I yelled.

I heard Federov come running in seconds. When he came in to view, he was carrying a small canister that was about a foot tall and had a hose attached to it, and on the other end of the hose was a nozzle with a trigger.

“Stand back!” Federov called as he ran towards the fire.

I stood back, away from the fire. Federov aimed the nozzle at the fire and pulled the trigger. Instantly, a dirty copper colored vapor was sprayed from the nozzle with a loud hiss! Sound. He sprayed all of the fires for a few seconds until they were all extinguished.

“Great work, Federov!” I told him.

“Thank you!” He said.

I then heard a barrage of gunshots from the enemy airships, and the sound of ripping cloth. We then began to rapidly lose altitude.

“We are losing altitude!” Federov panicked.

He looked around frantically, as did I.

“How do we fix that!?” Federov yelled at me, pointing upwards.

I looked up and saw that a gaping hole had been torn in our balloon.

“Great! Now what do we do?” I asked him.

“I cannot keep us airborne much longer! The balloon has a hole in it! Sink those airships quickly or we will all die!” Anara screamed over the loudspeaker.

Another thunderous gunshot rang through the air, but it did not come from our cannons, it came from the enemy cannons. I saw a black projectile speeding towards the mast for the crow’s nest. A second later, I heard an explosion, and I heard Fenton scream. Worry filled me for the young man’s life. I saw him ganging off of the edge of the platform of the crow’s nest. The pillar that was hit by the enemy cannon’s projectile was almost split in two pieces! Fenton swayed in the air as Anna-Maria turned the airship around so that our port side was facing the enemy airships.

“The helmsman!” Anara shouted over the loudspeaker.

“Someone help him!” I shouted, pointing to Fenton.

“I am on it!” Federov said, running over to the metal pillar that supported the crow’s nest.

I heard yet another barrage of sharp Ping! Sounds, and the pneumatic Hiss! Of air.

I followed the source of the noise, and found that our port side guns were destroyed!

“They have destroyed our port guns! I am turning to our starboard side! Do not let them incapacitate us!” Anara’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker.

I then felt the airship lurch as Anara turned us to face our starboard side to the enemy airships.

Before I mounted one of the guns, I saw Carmella and Anna-Maria and Luna all run from where they had been when our port guns were disabled and they ran to mount the starboard guns, which now faced the enemy airships. I looked over to check on Fenton, and saw that Federov had rescued him and was now carrying him back down to the safety of The Annabelle’s deck. I then mounted the mounted Tommy gun and aimed it at the airship that was on the left side. I fired for about two seconds. I then heard a thunderous gunshot come from the enemy airships and I saw another black projectile heading for us. The black projectile flew through the air at a frightening velocity and hit the starboard hull! They shockwave ripped the starboard guns from their mounts and tossed them to the ground below. The force of the black projectile hitting the starboard hull created a concussive shockwave that tossed me across the deck, and right over the port side! I flew over the railing, and I felt my stomach fly into my throat as gravity took hold and began pulling my downward.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think :)