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

Brown was already by the island, looking back at him with some anxiety. The gunner seemed to be holding an oversized plot board as Eric started to rush over towards him.

Not dying today.

Despite his adrenaline surge, Eric was surprised he was unable to run at anything approaching full speed. His legs were like rubber from the long time in the cockpit, his breath seeming to come raggedly.

Wait, that’s no plot board. Holy shit, that’s a piece of wood!

The charred edges and red paint barely visible towards the item’s bottom half was an indicator of where the material had come from. Brown started to grin, then winced in pain as he pushed the wood towards Eric.

"When they ask you if you got a hit, you give them this, sir!" the gunner said proudly, voice shaking with emotion. Eric’s eyes once again burned he grabbed the wood carefully with his gloved hands, then set it on top of his plotting board.

"Thank you, Brown," he bit out.

"You're welcome, sir," Brown replied, then looked behind Eric. "Well shit."

Eric turned around just in time to see the work party shoving his damaged and still smoldering plane over the side.

"Guess we’ll never know what started the fire,” Eric said, disgusted.

"Last Dauntless pilot, report to the flag bridge," the 1MC crackled. "I say again, last Dauntless pilot, report to the flag bridge."

Well shit.

He was about to say something when someone nearly tackled him from behind with a whoop.

"You son-of-a-bitch!" Charles bellowed, letting him go after a second. "I thought you were dead!"

Eric didn't know whether to belt his future brother-in-law or hug him. He settled for a hard embrace back.

"Hell of a way to talk about your future mother-in-law," he muttered, shoving Charles forcefully back and giving him a once over. "I am so fucking glad to see you.”

Charles laughed at that.

“Sweet Jesus, Charles, you know Patricia would have killed whichever one of us made it back, right?"

The younger officer laughed at that one.

"Yeah, well, the day is young," Charles replied. "But I heard you have an appointment with the old man, so best get going."

“You need to tell me what the hell happened to you when I get done here.”

“You know where our ready room is.”

With that, Eric turned and headed up the Yorktown's island

Thank God.

Relief gave him some of his energy back as he moved up the stairs. He passed two men in flight suits he did not recognize as he entered the structure. Both looked at him, then down at the object in his hands with confused looks on their faces. Eric nodded at both of them but kept moving through the narrow passageway, noting that one was a lieutenant commander.

Wonder if he's a torpedo or dive bomber pilot? Must be off the Bonhomme Richard, as I know all of Enterprise's squadron commanders.

Eric put the man out of his mind as he passed the Yorktown's conning tower. Captain Kiefer was calmly giving orders to the helmsman as the carrier turned out of the wind. Seeing Eric in the hatchway, Captain Kiefer turned over the conn to the officer of the deck and headed over.

"What in the hell do you have there?" Kiefer asked, gesturing towards Eric's hands.

"Piece of a Japanese carrier, sir," Eric replied with a grin. "Appears I may have been a little low pulling out from my drop."

Kiefer's eyes widened as he looked at Eric's hands.

"Well, guess we better get upstairs to see Vice Admiral Fletcher then," Yorktown's skipper replied. "There's been some dispute as to just how many carriers got hit. Lieutenant Commander Fairborn from Bonhomme Richard swears we got four."

"Three, sir," Eric said. "My gunner and I saw three. How many did Commander Montgomery say we got?"

Captain Kiefer looked left and right, then leaned in.

"Commander Montgomery didn't make it," Kiefer said. "He was last seen leaving the carriers with two Japanese fighters on his tail."

Shit, Eric thought, feeling as if a ton of bricks had landed on him.

"I was heading back up to the main bridge," Captain Kiefer said, not giving Eric a chance to think about the information. "I'll walk with you to the flag plot." Eric followed his captain up the Yorktown's island towards flag country, looking up to see a glowering commander was waiting outside the hatch. The man looked ready to say something to Eric, but stopped at the hard glare Captain Kiefer gave him. For his pat, Eric looked right at the superior officer as if daring him to say something.

Yes, I know I didn't come right here like I was some nugget at your beck and call I just got through watching my friends die and killing Japanese. What have you done this morning, asshole?

"Sir, I still don't think the Japs know where we are," a voice was saying from inside the compartment.

"I know Aubrey," a second man Eric recognized as Vice Admiral Fletcher's replied. "But we're going to concentrate on getting the fighters turned around before I even think about a second strike. Even if the aviators are right and they bagged four carriers, that apparently leaves two."

Well, that must be Rear Admiral Fitch. Always fun to walk into a room full of stars fresh off the flight deck.

"Even so, most of their strike went south to hit the British," Rear Admiral Fitch pressed. "They'll have to recover that strike before they can hit us. Given the range at which they had to hit the British, that's going to be awhile. We can bag them, sir."

There was a long silence.

"You know what our orders are, Aubrey," Fletcher said. "I know you want me to turn a blind eye to them, but there's a lot of war left to fight. Half the Japanese fleet must be out here given what happened to Vice Admiral Cunningham and Ceylon.”

The man has a point, especially with what we saw today.

“We've taken a big bite out of what we've found, but I don't want to be sitting here with full flight decks only to have the rest