Fourth Vector Ch. 03

Another factor to consider was how to turn around and exit the channel if it proved to be just a river. It would be hard enough as is just to reverse course but if they ran into any unexpected trouble, it could make for a harrowing situation.

Seeing as theTiger had the shallowest draft of all the ships, only twelve feet at its deepest, it was decided that the destroyer would be the one to navigate the channel for the time being while the two cruisers waited just off the coast. Jack transferred over toTiger alongside Greg and a couple platoons of marines as the task force floated harmlessly out at sea.

"Bring the ship in closer to the channel. Try to stay away from the shore as much as possible. Radio over to Luke and Abigail and have them wait for us at the entrance," instructed Jack as theTiger slipped inside the channel.

Once they were inside the inlet, Jack kept his eyes perched on both sides of the shore. Only the occasional flock of birds would catch his attention. It seemed just a little too calm, even to the point of being unnatural.

"Do you notice anything about the island? Anything off-putting to you?" Jack asked Vicky.

Vicky gave him a worried glance. "I think it's strange I haven't seen any animals. You'd think we'd have seen something at the very least but there's nothing here."

"Something doesn't feel right about this island," said Jack.

TheTiger crept deeper into the channel. About two hundred yards from the mouth, the passage began to narrow. Vicky guided the ship through the middle of the channel but as the shore raced closer on either side, it started to become a tight fit.

"Maybe we should go back. I'm starting to get nervous with how close that coast is," said Jack while gesturing to the dry land only a hundred feet from the hull.

"I'm okay with that," said Vicky before she pointed upriver just beyond the horizon. "What's that, Jack?"

The source of the channel seemed to be within sight. There was something glittering just ahead. Jack checked it out further with his binoculars.

"Is that what I think it is?" Vicky asked.

It looked to be a set of buildings to Jack. They looked eerily similar to those back in Java, made with a thick, red brick for the siding and peaked roofing. Rows of windows lined the shore of the small city and Jack could make out the various heights of those buildings closest to the channel.

"It's a city," Jack whispered. "It looks just like home."

Vicky bit her lip excitedly. "Can we get closer?"

Jack looked at the sides of the ship and then shrugged. He couldn't see any deeper into the water to know how deep the floor was so it was nearly impossible to judge. If only they could reach a little further, they could make contact with the city but it was foolish to keep going.

They would have to send the launch boats to explore any further.

"Let's get word back to theDestiny," said Jack. "We've already gone too far. Let's get back to the mouth of the chan—"

It came about suddenly. A devastatingly loud grinding noise erupted from the bottom of the ship and nearly everyone reached out to steady their balance as the vessel shook with a terrible racket. The ship lurched ahead with a boom and then stopped completely as the warning lights from the engine room began to flash.

"Jack, we've hit something!" said Vicky with a frightened look. "The propellers are still going but the ship is stuck!"

"Radio down to the engine room and have them reverse course. Let's see if we can dislodge ourselves," ordered Jack.

The ship rumbled to a full stop for several moments as the propellers prepared to change course. Soon enough they were working full steam to try to pull the ship back from whatever it had beached itself on. More severe grinding occurred as the hull scrapped the narrow bed of the channel. A few moments of shaking and no moving showed that the ship was thoroughly stuck.

"Cut power to the engines. We've been grounded," said Jack with frustration. He nearly threw his binoculars, knowing that they shouldn't have come so far up the channel.

"It's okay, Jack," said Vicky as her hand reached out to touch his arm. "We'll call back to Luke and have him pull us back."

"I need a status report on the hull. Please let me know of any breaches or leaks from the bottom. I won't see this ship flooded because of this," said Jack.

As she issued a series of orders, Jack put his hands around his head. If there was serious damage to the ship, it could throw the whole mission in jeopardy. He kept his thoughts contained while Vicky picked up her binoculars again. After a moment, she spoke up with a worried tone.

"Jack, I don't mean to alarm you, but where did the city go?" she asked while pointing out the window.

"What? What do you mean?" He grabbed his binoculars and looked back out the window. Looking back to where he'd spotted the city, Jack nearly dropped his jaw. The city was gone. What had appeared to be rows of windows and brick siding was now nothing but empty fields, devoid of trees or life. There was nothing left to capture their attention and Jack found himself looking back at Vicky with disbelief.

"How could this happen?" he whispered.

"I don't know. Was it a mirage?"

"Is it still considered a mirage if we both saw it?"

Vicky shrugged. "This is really bizarre, Jack."

The door to the bridge swung open suddenly and in popped Major Vaughn.

"What the hell was that noise, Jack? I'm hearing the men say we have flooding down on the lower deck!"

"Shit!" Jack swore. "How bad is it?"

"It's minimal and didn't look like a bad fix, but not something you'll want to let go."

"Vicky, get the pumps down there and begin to suck the water out," ordered Jack.

"Hot damn, Jack! We're far enough away from shore. How did we get grounded here?" asked Greg.

"It must be getting pretty shallow in this part of the channel," said Jack.

"Now what, Jack?" asked Vicky quietly.

"Well, it looks like we're not going anywhere quickly. I'm hesitant to send for theValiant but it's the only way we could possibly get off this sandbar. They need to take a little more precautions and I don't want them getting too close to us," said Jack.

It took around thirty minutes for theValiant to make its way up the channel. Jack had urged Luke to go slow and to follow what remained of theTiger's wake to prevent another accident from happening. Soon enough, the light cruiser came to rest not far from theTiger's stern as the crew began to unroll the chains from their stowed positions.

Jack and the rest of the officers from theTiger went to the stern of the ship to prepare to attach the towing chains.

"Bring those chains over and we'll attach to both sides of the ship. I want one on the back of the ship too so that we pull evenly," instructed Jack. "I'm going to need a group of volunteers to go down into the water here and help attach the chains."

"I'll grab some of the men to help with that, Jack," said Vicky before sending her lieutenant off to fetch the required manpower.

It was an incredible operation to watch the crews of both ships coordinate the towing action. It was even more awesome to see the size of the massive chains that would soon connect both ships. Jack had seen towing actions before, but the chains always amazed him—one single link was larger than the size of a cement block and just as heavy.

Because of the massive size, they had to be lowered into place and then guided by hand. For that, Vicky had assembled three crews of about ten men each. Each of them piled into a small boat since the water was still too deep to stand in and helped to guide them to points where they could be attached to theTiger.

At one point, Jack even joined one of the crews as an excuse to see some action. He climbed down into a small boat on the port side of the ship.

"Nice and easy now, men. Let's guide her right into place," he advised as all of them took a portion of the chain to link to the cruiser's hull.

"Hold on! The crane's stuck! Give us a moment," yelled one of the sailors from theValiant as the large chain came to a halt right next to the ship.

"That would figure," grumbled one of the enlisted men next to Jack.

"Lazy bastards," said another one. "You'd think they'd know how to operate a simple crane."

"This sure doesn't look like much out here. I was expecting the Fourth Vector to look a little more . . . evil?"

"It kind of looks like the southern half of Java," said the other man with a laugh.

"I don't know. Something about those trees over there gives me a funny feeling," said the first man as he pointed over to shore.

Jack followed the man's hand with his eyes. He was right—the trees on the opposing shore did look awfully ominous right now. Jack wasn't sure what bothered him more—the way the sun seemed to shine only to the top of the trees (creating nothing but shadows underneath the foliage) or the eerie sound of silence from the shore. Either way, the slight breeze that shook the leaves on the trees seemed to raise the hairs on his neck.

"They're just trees, you moron. How can they give you a—FUCK!"

Jack whipped his head around quickly to look at the man who just swore and found him crumbled to the bottom of the small boat holding his head while blood pumped out the side of his neck, painting the inside of the vessel red.

"Chuck, what the hell did you do?"

"Something hit me, goddamnit!" the wounded man cried out.

"Hold on, keep still," said Jack, climbing over to attend to the man. A small, bloody gash had opened on the side of his neck just about an inch in size. Jack's eyes craned over the floor of the boat and immediately settled on the object that caused it. Reaching over to pick it up, Jack squinted at the small, circular stone that had so wounded the man.

"This is what you were hit with," said Jack, holding up the stone. "How the hell did a stone get launched this hard?"

Before anyone could venture a guess, a loud bang erupted against the side of the boat as another stone was launched against it. A split-second later, another sailor whelped in pain as the stone made contact.

"Where the hell is that coming from?"

"Who's shooting stones at us?"

"It's the damn trees! Look over there!"

Jack looked over just in time. A short way over at the shoreline stood a small crowd of people and they definitely weren't Javans. He couldn't study them any longer before the front row pulled back on what appeared to be a slingshot and released.

"Get your heads down!" yelled Jack as he ducked beneath the side of the boat.

The warning came far too late for half of the men. Screams and yelps erupted along the entire length of the small vessel. Moments later, another volley came erupting against the side of the boat, this time missing most of the men.

"Keep your damn heads down," roared Jack as a steady stream of slingshots began to pepper their position in regular intervals.

"We're pinned down. We're under attack!" yelled several of the men.

Jack grabbed the radio at his waist and tuned to the command frequency. "Greg, we need help as soon as possible!"

Waiting for him to come in, Jack looked up to survey the damage. He could see the men that operated the crane on theValiant now ducking behind any object as they tried to avoid the firing as well. Even the men at the rear boat near the stern were taking cover and Jack could only imagine the men on the starboard side under a similar position.

"Jack, what's going on out there?" came Greg's voice moments later.

"We're under attack from shore! I need you to get the marines to open fire and scatter the crowd gathered over here!"

"On it, Jack!" he said. "Who are these people?"

Jack hazarded another glance over the rim of the boat. What now appeared to be at least a fifty people had gathered on the shore to keep up the shooting. "I don't know but we need to give them a taste of their own medicine!"

Around the beached ship, men scattered across the deck to help their beleaguered comrades. The alarm for battle-stations roared overhead and soon Jack could hear the sounds of opposing fire as guns opened up. He took the chance to look again at shore.

The gun fire decimated the front ranks of the people onshore and they were now rushing for coverage behind the tree line. Several of them were unlucky enough to be hit square in the back as they hustled for protection, falling in their tracks.

"They're running away!" yelled one of the men as most of the natives escaped beyond the trees. If the men thought the ordeal was over, they were quickly robbed of the notion. Projectiles started to issue forth again as the natives regrouped behind the trees. While they weren't anywhere near as lethal as the first volleys, it still kept them pinned down.

"We need to get out of these boats or we're sitting ducks," said Jack, taking the chance to stand and approach the motor at the rear of the boat. He knew he was being reckless with his life but it didn't matter. If they stayed here, they couldn't fight back.

The small boat roared to life as the motor dipped back into the water and shot them forward. All of the men had to duck to miss the towing chain on their way out as slingshots continued to slam into the hull and machine gun fire continued to issue overhead.

"Greg, come in," said Jack, talking through the radio. "We need a team of men to go ashore and chase after these bastards."

"Roger that, Jack! I'm already having a couple platoons gear up!" came the response from the marine.

The boat lurched forward until it reached the small ladder to get back to the main deck. One by one, the men scampered back up the ladder, some of them alone while others carried their wounded comrades across their shoulder. Jack waited until every man was off until he radioed back to Greg.

"Come on down, Greg. Portside midship ladder. Bring me a rifle!"

A few moments later, the face of the marine appeared just off the deck. "Did someone call for some backup?"

"I sure did! Get your ass down here and let's kill these bastards," said Jack.

The battle-ready marines began to file into the boat. Their heavy protective clothing seemed to help better than those of the sailors as several of them took hits on the way down and remained standing. Soon enough, Jack had just about half a platoon squeezed into the tiny boat and turned the motor to begin a short dash to the shore.

"Rifles up, boys! Let's show them why no one messes with Javan marines," yelled Greg as the boat neared shore.

They weren't without casualties on the short journey over. One particularly unlucky marine took a shot right to the face. The small fountain of blood that erupted combined with his eerie stillness right after told Jack the man wouldn't make it. It was just a very blatant reminder to them all to keep their heads down as much as possible.

Almost too soon, the boat pulled up against the sandy bank and each of them ducked over the side to take shelter behind it. As soon as covering fire was secured, the team on the right side of the boat rushed toward the tree line.

"They're pulling back! Let's go," yelled Greg with the forward group of marines as they began to dash into the overgrowth of trees.

Jack and the marines left on the beach began to rush to join their comrades. Soon enough the entire group was hustling over the dead bodies of the natives left on the beach as they emerged into the small, coastal forest. Several slingshots ricocheted off the trees as the group looked for shelter.

"Keep your heads down," said Greg as several of them huddled behind one particularly large tree.

"Where the hell did they go," said Jack, looking further into the forest. The path in front of them was void of any life—the natives having long since pulled back. Apart from the occasional shot, no one could tell where they went.

"Let's advance further. I want you men to spread out and watch your backs. Let's see if we can stumble on some more of these bastards," said Greg as each of them spread out to form a semicircle.

Jack paired up with another marine he knew to be named Pullman and together they pushed into their section of the forest. Off to his right, Jack could see Greg advancing some thirty feet away in the same direction.

"Keep at it, men! Holler if you see anything," said Greg. About twenty minutes after their boat reached shore, the men stopped in their tracks. The forest at that point became too dark and deep to advance without more men. To make matters worse, all the firing from the natives had since stopped, and they had completely disappeared from sight. It was almost like they had gone into thin air.

From where they had halted, Greg had taken a short jaunt over to Jack's position. What had started as a distance of thirty feet originally had fanned out to about one hundred by the time they had stopped chasing.

"What do you think, Jack? I haven't seen a damn thing in ages."

"Me neither. It's quiet. Almost too quiet," said Jack, still trying to look through bushes and trees to catch a glimpse of the enemy.

"What do you want to do? Go back to the ship?"

Jack quickly shook his head. "And have them come rushing back to shoot at us as soon as our backs are turned again? No way. I want us to create a defensive perimeter. On both sides of the ship. That way, our sailors can work unencumbered without having to worry about someone shooting at their backs."

Greg's radio opened up at that moment. "Major Vaughn, come in."

"Go ahead."

"This is Lt. Reid on the starboard side of theTiger. We've lost contact with the enemy," came the voice through the radio.

"Roger that, Lieutenant," said Greg. "We've lost contact as well. Pull back to about thirty yards from the beach on your side and form a defensive perimeter."

"Yes, sir!"

"Well, that should take care of the boys, Jack," said Greg grimly. "I don't like that we've only killed so few of them. I especially don't like that now we throw the initiative back to them.

Jack furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

Greg shrugged and let his rifle rest on his boot. "Now that we stop pursuing them, they have a chance to regroup. If we pull back to the beaches, they could launch a surprise attack on us. And if they break through, it'll be easy for them to wreak havoc on the crews again."

"That part bothers me as well," said Jack. "But there's not much else we can do now without more men. I'm concerned about an ambush if we press further into the forest without support. They could easily surround us and wipe us out."

"Damned if we do and damned if we don't, right, Jack?" said Greg with a smirk.

Jack chuckled. "Isn't it always?"

"I at least want to make those bastards sorry they ever thought to attack us. Hopefully we caused enough casualties among them today that they'll think twice about doing it again."

"We can hope. Something is off about this island though, Greg. Where the hell did these people come from? We circled the entire island yesterday and saw signs of nothing. There had to be over a fifty men on just our side of the beach. Probably equal numbers on the other side too. And that's just the warriors. Where do you hide that many people on such a small island?"

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," said Greg. "I don't think we've seen enough of our little friends here."

"Speaking of little, I want to grab a few of the dead ones and bring them back to the ships to examine. These are the first Fourthies we've run across and I want to see them up close," said Jack as they began to turn back to the ship.

Greg issued a command to the remaining men and they were back to their designated defensive positions soon enough. Together, they set the perimeter for the men as well and also set up two relief groups of marines to stand watch on three different shifts throughout the day. At least in these positions, Jack felt confident they'd have plenty of notice in case the natives decided to attack again.