Against the Tide Imperial: The Struggle for Ceylon (The Usurper's War: An Alternative World War II B by James Young (story reading txt) 📕

and saw that his gunner was right, some of Enterprise's air group was attacking the two Kongo-class vessels that were close at hand rather than going for the two additional Japanese carriers a little over ten miles away.

Those battleships aren't going to fly back and hit us! We could hit at least one more flattop!

"Don't know, but keep your eye out for fighters!" Eric said, seeing several dark shapes rising from below. Their Dauntless was shaking from the roaring engine, and he briefly scanned his instruments as the flak continued to burst all around them. He watched as a section of Wildcats turned towards the approaching Japanese fighters, then cursed as White Three disappeared in a puff of all too familiar brown smoke.

Then finally, finally, his section was at the pushover point. Their target circled tightly beneath them, her flight deck edges aflame as the guns attempted to simultaneously engage Eric, the remnants of Yellow flight now sliding in behind him, and a group of six Avengers attempting to hit the carrier.

Soryu or Hiryu, I believe.

For a brief moment he tried to remember the distinguishing features that might tell him which carrier it was, then realized this was utterly unimportant. Extending his dive flaps, pulling back his throttle, and doing one last check to make sure his weapon was actually armed, Eric Melville Cobb began his date with destiny.

Oh shit, he thought, pressing his eyes to the bombsight. The carrier's deck was suddenly large, the red rising sun symbol bright against the yellow deck. As he watched, an aircraft rolled down the long wooden expanse, a fighter by the looks of it. Despite the sudden bile in his throat, Eric didn't flinch, imparting very gentle changes to the rudder to adjust for the carrier's turn. Time slowed, the tracers from the 25mm AAA floating by as he flashed through 10,000 feet…then 8,000 feet…then 7,000 feet.

"Goddammit!" he heard Brown shout, then the chatter of the twin guns. With a roaring sound, a gray Japanese fighter flashed in front of the Dauntless, Eric briefly noting its ailerons as the Japanese pilot skidded to avoid flying in front of the SBD's twin machine guns. Putting the Zero from his mind, Eric added a little more rudder, anticipating where the Japanese flattop was going to be in a few moments when he pressed the release.

"Three thousand!" Brown shouted.

So soon? Shit…gotta…no, I'm going to be on target any second now.

Eric's patience was rewarded as Brown sang out two thousand feet. The large rising sun was suddenly in the middle of his sight picture, and he pressed the bomb release. Waiting…waiting…and he felt the bomb separate from the end of its trapeze, safely on its path.

"Seventeen hundred!" Brown screamed, terror in his voice even as Eric hauled back hard on the stick.

The Dauntless creaked, the engine screaming as he fed it throttle. Eric's vision dimmed, his eyes briefly registering the aft end of the flight deck, then suddenly the blue water frighteningly close as their bomber leveled off. Then the Dauntless was being pelted by debris, chunks of wood and metal slamming into his wings and fuselage as Brown let off a wild scream and long machine gun burst back towards the Japanese carrier.

I hope that I got a hit. More pressing problems though!

As if summoned, the angry Japanese fighter that had overshot began a run in from his starboard front. Eric skidded the Dauntless and mashed his own trigger as the Japanese pilot fired simultaneously. Sparks flew from the front of the fuselage as the 7.7mm machine guns started to walk backwards, but a spray of glass told Eric his own machine guns had gone right through the Zero's canopy. The gray fighter seemed to barely clear the Dauntless before splashing astern.

"Sir! Sir! You're supposed to drop the bombs, I'm supposed to do the shooting!" Brown shouted, his voice several octaves higher than normal.

Eric laughed as he quickly began heading through the Japanese task group, trumpets interspersed with screaming still sounding in his headphones. There was one more burning carrier, a Shokaku-class if his eyes didn't deceive him. Looking around, he saw only one other Dauntless with him, and it was not either of his wingmen.

Oh God, I hope I didn't lose them both.

"Did we hit her?" Eric asked.

"Did we…sir, you nearly fucking landed on that bitch," Brown replied, his voice incredulous. "Once again, I've got a piece of a damn ship back here with me and the guns."

I've got to stop doing that.

Suddenly he was nauseous, the adrenaline starting to ebb as he winged his way northwest towards the rendezvous point. His head on constant swivel, Eric put the Dauntless into a shallow right turn and craned his neck around. He counted three columns of smoke, two larger than the one over the carrier he had attacked.

Guess Enterprise's gang got some licks in after all. There's still three carriers left, though, and they're going to be pissed about what just happened.

Looking at his fuel gauge, then doing one more scan for threats, Eric did a gentle circle orbit back towards the Japanese task force as Brown banged around with something in the rear cockpit. After a few minutes, his gunner looked out and saw which way they were heading.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking," Brown began, "what the fuck are we doing?"

"Taking a quick note," Eric replied, jotting down some things on his plotting board. Satisfied, he reversed the Dauntless' course, still checking behind and above him for any enemy fighters.

"I'm also checking to see what happened to Two and Three," Eric continued. "But I'm not going to hang around the scene of the crime until the cops arrive because the rest of the bank robbers stopped to take a piss."

"That sounds good to me, sir!"

U.S.S. Houston

0900 Local (2330 Eastern)

Northern Indian Ocean

10 August (9 August)

"Massachusetts reports many contacts, bearing one six oh true, range seven oh miles."

"Here's to hoping those are friendly, or we're about to have a very bad