Until The Last Ship!

Time: 3 days into the war

Location: 50 KM off the Central America District

POV: Admiral Stevenson

(TOS = The Organisation's Ship)

''Sir, you know that this mission has been going too easy.'' My second in command said as he looked through his binoculars.

''Agreed, we are the last escort taskforce assigned to transport the last one million, high-value civilians, from the Central American District. Last two taskforces got harassed by enemy flying objects from the moment they set sail... Check the radar systems again, double-check the CIWS and other ship defence system. I want TOS Mackensen and TOS Rudolf to have their planes ready for launch, no, make them launch one half already.

'Taking into account TOS Mackensen and TOS Rudolf we have two more helicopter carriers, 4 advanced dreadnoughts, 6 battlecruisers, 22 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 6 submarines, it's the second-largest navy assembled since the start of the war. Although I have faith in my ships we do have to cover over one hundred transport ships, carrying roughly one million people together. Marshall, please guide us through this trip like you've done for us in the past.' I prayed

''INCOMING!'' the radar man shouted, without a second delay all CIWS systems on the outer fleet started spewing thousands of bullets to the incoming projectiles making a wall of shells. ''How many!'' I asked with hurry, ''Sir, one thousand flying objects are inbound in 2 minutes, their vanguard has already arrived!'' The radar man reported. ''SIR THE BATTLECRUISER TOS CUBA HAS BEEN HIT!'' one of the radiomen shouted, ''HEAVY CRUISER TOS AQUILA HAS BEEN DAMAGED!''

''TRANSPORT SHIP A-08... A-10 A-18...''

The list of ships damaged or hit just kept on increasing, ''WHERE ARE OUR PLANES AT! MAKE THEM ENGAGE THE ENEMY!'' I shouted angrily as I heard the reports. ''Sir they have already engaged... and they were all destroyed in seconds.'' The man reported whilst shaking heavily. There was utter silence on the bridge...

''We are going to die aren't we sir?'' One of the men on the bridge asked nervously. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, analysing all possible actions and outcomes I came to one conclusion

''Yes...''

Men! I know I have always demanded a 110% from all of you, I know some of you resent my practices or punishments, I understand that some of you have families waiting back at the Andes base. And I know some of you still got a long life ahead of you. BUT!

WILL YOU FIGHT!

WILL YOU FIGHT WITH ME SIDE BY SIDE AS WE CRUSH OUR ENEMIES!

WILL YOU FIGHT LIKE OUR BRETHREN BEFORE US!

WILL YOU FIGHT!

TOGETHER!

WITH ME!

FORE ONE MORE TIME!''

I shouted to try to get morale back up, there was an eerily silence as people looked at me before they nodded to each other.

''SIR YES SIR!'' They shouted as they saluted me, a weight seemed to drop from my shoulders as I saluted back. I put away all my nonsense thoughts and focused fully on the fight again.

''Move subgroup 4 in the direction of the incoming enemies, decrease the speed of the capital ships and increase the speed of the transports. Let 30 destroyers, all submarines, 10 cruisers and the two helicopter carriers continue to escort... The others stay behind.'' I sat down in my captain chair as I pulled out a pocket watch, in it was a picture of my daughter standing in front of the Military School for Staff officers, 'I'm sorry Anabella, but you have to forgive your father for not keeping his promise...' I closed the pocket watch and put it in my breast pocket.

''Sir contact with the Andes Base is still jammed, we don't know when we can contact them again...'' One of my officers reported. ''Contact me again when you have!'' I replied before hanging up. Reports immediately came flying in as the main body of the enemies charged into our fleet formation.

''Destroyer TOS Luxembourg has run out of missiles sir!''

''The CIWS systems of the outer fleet are running low on ammunition!''

''Dreadnought TOS Europa is sinking after the 30th strike!''

A massive shock travelled through our dreadnought, ''Damage report!'' I shouted, ''Left nuclear reactor has been hit, leaking dangerous radiation!''

''WARNING REACTOR 2 HAS BEEN BREACHED!'' Sounded over the intercom, ''Activate Reactor Eject sequence!'' I ordered.

Although this would damage the surroundings immensely, even contaminate millions of litres of water, we are at war!

''REACTOR TWO EJECTING IN T-MINUS 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... EJECT!'' The entire ship temporarily leaned to the right as the weight of the reactor was lost.

''Sir our ships CIWS system has run through half its ammunition, enemy casualties is only at 150 objects destroyed or incapacitated!'' My second in command reminded me. ''Close formation!'' I ordered so that the ships around us come closer to form a second shield.

Ship after ship, missile after missile, our fleet fought to the bitter end, battling for over 2 hours. We've ran out of CIWS ammunition half an hour ago. All our destroyers are sinking behind us, while most cruisers are operating at half efficiency with us as the only dreadnought left.

''INCOMING!'' Someone at the window shouted, but it was too late, we got hit right below the bridge, glass shrapnel was flown around the room, I screamed in pain as glass pierced me in multiple areas.

I looked around the room hazily, bodies were lying everywhere, yet none stood back up, everyone except me... died, I was confused as to why I was alive then. Only 5 seconds later came my answer as I felt a heavy weight fall on top of me, ''Carlos, CARLOS!'' I shouted as my best friend and second in command fell on top of me full of glass shards in his body. He was able to barely protected me causing my head to only suffer minors injuries. ''Steve, if... you... ma... back, my... so...'' He closed his eyes slowly as he was uttering his last words while holding a picture of his newborn son. Tears rolled down my eyes as I held his hands. After only a full minute did I recover from the shock.

Putting his body down gently I walked to the controls panel, ''I won't go down as easily!'' just as I was about to start sending out new commands, ''SIR WE HAVE RADIO CONTACT!'' the radio officer shouted over the intercom. I immediately grabbed the radio, ''THIS IS TASK FORCE ALPHA 2 ZERO WE ARE ENGAGED WITH MULTIPLE ENEMY FLYING OBJECTS! REQUESTING ASSISTANCE, REPEAT WE ARE TASK FORCE ALPHA 2 ZERO, REQUESTING ASSISTANCE, FLEET DOWN TO 30% OF ORIGINAL STRENGTH!!'' I shouted over the radio to the Andes Motherbase, ''This is Andes Base, we have received your request, due to high-value personnel cargo we will be sending out the HMS Dreadnought herself.''

'HMS Dreadnought? Normally it's parked at the Motherbase? Doesn't matter right now, that thing is so slow it will take hours to arrive!' I cursed the person on the other side, but just as I was complaining the cloud cover was broken in the distance a massive zeppelin moved at high speed towards this area, fighter planes I haven't seen before left its hangars. 'It seems it was in the area!' But just as hope seemed to arrive, so did a massive light beam that smashed into it from space...