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Prince
Local Time: 23:50
Local Date: November 1, 2010
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain
Posts: 393
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Edwards grinned in delight as the Sovereign began to turn the only way it could, going the shorter way up to the top of the line rather than going all the way down it, with ships probably moving to close the gaps as Temeraire had done. They were taking the short route, which Spartacus had lined herself up to intercept.
Spartacus came inside Royal Sovereign’s turn, and both ships opened fire – Spencer’s flagship firing a few less cannon than usual, even having transferred most of the crew from the other side of the ship. There were simply too many dead, dying and wounded on Sovereign to fight at full efficiency.
The fire hurt Spartacus, and yet more men were killed, but the Sovereign by now was the ship that couldn’t afford the losses. Even more men were killed, and in the smoke, the crew of Spartacus threw grappling hooks at the Royal Sovereign.
Spencer watched in disbelief as more and more boarding ladders, grappling hooks and even gangways and planks were thrown upwards to provide ways onto his ship.
Being boarded by a two-decker! he raged. But he knew that it had been done before – Nelson had led a boarding party from his two-decked HMS Captain to capture a Spanish two-decker (San Nicolas), when the three-decked San Josef got tangled with the Nicolas. Therefore, Nelson also boarded Josef from the deck of the first Spanish ship. Before this, he had led his ship into a fight with four first rates, one being the biggest ship in the world, the Santissima Trinidad, of 134 guns and four decks.
Recalling all those events from the textbooks he had read, Spencer felt like a fool. Just like all the others, he had underestimated Nelson, and now he was going to pay the price.
Dammit, I can still win this! And even if I can’t, I can go down with a fight that even Nelson will remember!
He led his crewmen forward to start supporting the Marines in holding back the Spartacus’s boarding party.
* * * * *
Edwards was at the fore of the men invading HMS Royal Sovereign, determined to seek vengeance for the attempted hanging, and his ship’s ordeal.
One man charged at him with a boarding pike, used to either stab upwards when boarding from boats, to skewer crewmen when boarding other ships, or to deter a boarding party. This sailor was using it for the latter, but in that form it should be used in rows. By itself, the pike is easy to avoid, then drag the bearer towards you until you can reach them with your sword.
And that’s what Edwards did, hurling the man towards him, onto the point of his sword. He then withdrew it with a kick, and stabbed downwards once more with it into the top of the man’s chest as he collapsed to the floor.
Edwards turned, and stepped over the pike, heading for Spencer.
A fist smashed into his face from the right, and he saw stars for a few seconds, before recovering to dodge a cutlass swipe from a burly midshipman. Spitting blood, Edwards kicked the man in his groin, and hammered the hilt of his sword into the face of the man, likely knocking out some teeth.
“See how you like it.” Edwards roared, as he swiped the sword across, cutting the sailor’s belly open.
The man collapsed to the ground, desperately trying to hold his guts in with his hands.
Edwards stepped over the fallen man, and saw Spencer even closer now, cutting his way through some of the Spartacus’s Marines.
He groaned in frustration and fear as he saw the party of Sovereign Marines heading straight for him. The adrenaline was pumping – he was ready to take them on, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t terrified, just like every other man in that brawling, grunting mass of men, weapons, smoke and blood.
Then he head the roar of the seven-barrelled gun behind him. His biggest Marine had just unslung his naval gun, and the effect was devastating. All that was left of the group was a heap of blood, guts and groaning men.
Edwards barged past some of his own Marines to reach Spencer, and finally Spencer saw him.
The two men clashed, swords slipping due to blood on them. Both grunted with the effort, and went for another attack.
Spencer lunged, and Edwards parried, forcing the sword to slip downwards in a shower of sparks, and taking advantage of Spencer’s temporary loss of balance due to this, Edwards lunged forwards, slashing at the back of Spencer’s knee.
Spencer fell to his knees, unable to control that leg below the knee with the tendons cut, and trying to contain the flow of blood.
He needed a way to finish the fight, and saw it. One of his officers had fallen with his pistol in his hand. Reloaded and ready to fire.
Spencer dived for the pistol, rolled and somehow got back onto his knee.
Edwards saw the pistol, and desperately charged at Spencer. He had already fired off his own pistols, rendering them useless.
Spencer cocked the pistol and pulled the trigger.
Just as a bullet from Devon’s musket shattered his wrist.
The impact of the bullet caused his arm to jerk as he fired, and the bullet went wild into the air, missing Edwards.
Edwards raised his sword to finish off Spencer, then stopped.
“You’ll face justice, hung drawn and quartered like the traitor you are.”
Spencer shook with fear as he remembered that was still one of the possible punishments for treason.
“Kill me, please!” he begged. Then his tone changed, as he realised that if the Prime Minister hadn’t been rumbled he might be able to get out of this alive. “You’ve made a grave mistake, Edwards, and you’ll face your own justice soon enough.”
Edwards smiled, shook his head and walked away, as two Marines grabbed Spencer to haul him onto the Spartacus.
Around them, with the Admiral down, Spencer’s crew were surrendering. Only a few pockets of resistance were left, especially where the Sovereign’s Captain lay dying. He was one of the old breed, and refused to surrender, and the men around him followed his example.
Edwards now approached the Captain under a white flag. Being old school, he respected the truce, and nodded at Edwards to come closer.
“You’ve been fighting your own country, not for it.” Edwards stated simply. He already knew that Spencer had been feeding the old and slightly mad Captain lies, and now he saw the old man crumple in defeat.
“I strike.” The older man said, lifting his sword with effort. Striking their flag was the way that ships surrendered, with their Captain handing his sword over.
“Keep it, you fought well, old friend.” Edwards nodded in respect. Refusing the sword showed respect for how well the opposition had fought, and the old Captain smiled one last smile, as his body went limp, and he died.
“Such a waste. All of this for a few men’s greed.” Edwards said sadly. Little did he know that onboard Victory, Nelson was saying the exact same thing, for it was a waste. And it was a waste that put Britain itself on the line…
* * * * *
“Say that again?!” Victoria demanded.
The messenger simply handed her the dispatch.
The French fleet had slipped through Britain’s defences, and landed an invasion force.
“Spencer will pay, if we survive this.” Victoria vowed. “What is happening on the mainland?”
“The Duke of Wellington has left Parliament, and is rallying the British Army around him.”
“His words?”
“He reportedly said “Screw you politicians, you don’t know what the real world is like. I’m going back out into it, to fight this battle and beat that stupid French pr*ck one more time!” in the Houses of Parliament.”
Victoria smiled, and just hoped her country would survive this threat.
* * * * *
Outside, out to sea, the battle was ending. With the Sovereign no longer giving orders, and soon after striking her colours, the fleet was in disarray, attempting to only pierce the first line then move along it, rather than going through both, sentencing themselves to defeat. One would smash through the line, to be hammered by a lot of ships, and mostly defeated by the time the next ship emerged through the smoke.
When those who hadn’t gone through yet caught on, they tried to escape, but a squadron led by Spartacus and Temeraire hunted them down, sinking them, setting fire to them or forcing them to strike their colours.
It was a complete and utter rout. Nelson’s fleet received just 250 killed and wounded, whereas Spencer’s had about a thousand. None of Nelson’s ships had struck, to all of Spencer’s striking or sinking, or being reduced to burning hulks.
When Nelson returned to the Isle of Wight, he took Edwards and Spencer with him to meet Victoria. Admiral Weston had been killed by Nelson’s own sword, when Nelson led a boarding party onto HMS Prince, and forced it to strike it’s colours. Then another ship had got tangled with Prince, and Nelson had done his textbook trick of boarding that ship from the deck of Prince, and forced it to strike too.
When Victoria saw Spencer, her first reaction was to slap him. The doctors had done a good job sorting out his bleeding and damaged knee, and his wrist was bandaged tightly, but he was still frail from loss of blood. The slap sent him to the floor, to be hurled back up by his two Marine guards.
“Do you know what you’ve done?!” she shouted at him.
“I have done nothing. I had no knowledge of these slave trades run by Edwards and his cronies - just ask the Prime Minister.”
“I would, but he’s currently being escorted to prison.” Victoria snarled. “And I don’t mean that! With you forcing my Navy to decimate itself, the French fleet has snuck around behind us and invaded Britain!”
Spencer paled with shock. Even he hated the French, and to have them on British soil was a terrible thought.
“But the French have terrible military leaders! All their good ones were associated with Napoleon - and they’re either dead or disgraced! They won’t last long.” Spencer tried defending himself.
“Napoleon is back.” Victoria snapped.
All resistance from Spencer collapsed. He was a wreck, a man who had abused his country to make money, and now had betrayed the very freedom of that nation. Traitor or not when it came to money, to betray Britain’s freedom to the French was a fate worse than death for him.
“Take him away.” Victoria ordered. Then she turned to Nelson. “Sorry Admiral, but as you heard, it’s all bad news, despite your amazing victory.”
“It may not be all bad news, Your Highness.” Nelson smiled. “I think I might have a plan…”
* * * * *
More to come soon! Thanks for reading, and comments appreciated!
Nemesis
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Quote:"He who has not learned to obey cannot be a great leader."
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