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

fouled Enterprise’s deck. Litter crews moving to and fro had also seemed to cause some issues as far as handling went.

"Wonder if the boys off the Atlantic carriers are going to get lost trying to move around Old Yorky?" Brown mused, using the Yorktown's nickname.

"I imagine the Bonhomme Richard folks shouldn't be too confused," Eric replied. "She just looks like a bigger sister."

"Like the ugly one you hope your buddy will date so you can actually talk to the cute one," Brown agreed, drawing a chuckle from Eric.

"You're lucky I only have one sister, Brown," Eric replied. Thinking of Patricia made him once more examine the other Dauntlesses still in formation.

Come on Charles, you don’t need to break my sister’s heart.

"It's entirely possible Lieutenant headed for the Richard, sir," Brown stated, startling Eric.

"That obvious?" Eric asked.

"The plane always wobbles when you start trying to look at something," Brown replied easily. "Can't think of any other reason you'd be checking out Dauntlesses."

"Well I still haven't seen Stratmore or Van Horn, so there's that," Eric noted.

The silence over the intercom was deafening.

Brown isn't usually this quiet. He needs to get out with i–

"I didn't want to tell you until we got down, sir," Brown said finally. "But I'm pretty sure Ensign Van Horn would have had to ditch."

Eric closed his eyes, feeling hot pain behind them.

"Roger," he choked out.

"Wasn't your fault, sir," Brown said. "He started smoking during his dive. He pulled out, but if he made it more than five miles I'd be surprised."

Eric swallowed to clear the lump in his throat.

"Thanks Brown," he rasped.

"Yes, sir," Brown replied. "I didn't see what happened to Ensign Stratmore. Got kind of busy shooting back at those assholes trying to kill us."

Eric didn't reply, the hot tears finally starting to roll down his cheeks.

That's one of my men definitely dead, one a Japanese prisoner.

Once more Eric flashed back to Strange's Dauntless engulfed in flames.

If the Japanese are even taking prisoners.

It seemed as though their time in Australia had passed in the blink of an eye, but there had been several opportunities for the Yorktown's crew to talk to their counterparts who had survived the Dutch East Indies maelstrom. The men who had escaped and evaded back to Australia had talked about how the Japanese Army had treated men they'd captured. It had made Eric resolve to never be captured alive.

It's not like we would have left those escorts in a sunny disposition either. I'm pretty sure at least two of those carriers are done for. Nothing smokes like that and survives.

He had plenty of time to think about what he'd tell the task force's intelligence officer over the next fifteen minutes. Just as Eric's bladder was convincing him he might wish to consider using the relief tube again, the Yorktown signaled for him to begin his approach.

"Are we literally the last dive bomber up here?" Brown asked.

"It would appear that way," Eric noted in disbelief. "Guess we shouldn't have let that Helldiver off of Bonhomme Richard cut in front of us."

"Kinda says something when the replacements for ol' 'Slow But Deadly' can't wait in line properly," Brown noted with disgust.

"I'm just glad he didn't foul the deck," Eric noted as he descended astern of the Yorktown. He could see smoke pouring from the plane guard destroyer's stack as the tin can attempted to keep up.

Hmm. Fletcher's probably not such an idiot as we all thought given how much fuel all the escorts must be using.

The Dauntless shuddered slightly as he dropped the gear, the controls getting mushy for a second.

"Hey sir, we're streaming something," Brown said from the tail gunner slot. "Looks like hydraulic fluid."

Well that's just peachy.

Eric gritted his teeth and dropped the SBD's tail hook.

I hope whatever just came loose to start that leak isn’t so bad the controls fail.

Ignoring the problem, he glanced forward and watched the LSO's paddles. After what looked like a few moments hesitation, the lieutenant on the paddles began signaling that he was slightly high. Making the correction, Eric settled down into a comfortable approach and dropped his hook.

"Shit," Brown said behind him. "Sir, we got smoke."

Eric didn't even both looking back, still focusing on the LSO.

We're landing. I don't care if we turn into a flaming comet.

Once more it looked like the LSO was considering waving them off, but reconsidered at the last moment. With a plume of white behind his aircraft, Eric dropped the hook and took the cut signal, thudding down hard onto Yorktown's deck as his controls became slightly mushy. The impact slammed him hard against his restraints, knocking the breath from his lungs as the arrester hook did its job. Quickly chopping the throttle and cutting off fuel to his now heavily smoking engine, Eric began unstrapping himself from the SBD.

What in the hell caught fire?

Looking up, Eric saw the men rushing forward with fire extinguishers and unrolling the hose from the island. The men in different jerseys began clambering up the bomber's side to assist him in getting out.

"Sir, you injured?!" a corpsman asked, already looking Eric over.

"No corpsman, I am not," Eric said quickly. "Just getting my damn map."

"Fuck the map, sir, we have to get you off the deck!" a chief shouted from the wing. Eric shook his head vehemently.

"I've got information on that map," he snapped, the mapboard free. Something snagged on his flight gloves, and he looked down to see a jagged slash down the board's underside. Taking a further look around his cockpit from the standing position, he noticed a couple other holes in the floor.

Holy shit, I guess we did get nicked up by something. Eric started to move off when his head snapped back. Cursing, he realized that he had not disconnected his helmet's leads. Water from the firefighting crew sprayed in his face as he reached back for the wire, giving it a sharp tug that caused it to come loose from the dive bomber. Hopping down off the bomber, Eric saw that