[u][b]Monitor [i]Relentless[/i] - Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior[/b][/u]

"What do you think is happening, Commodore?", Captain Barrett, Commanding Officer of the [i]Relentless[/i], asked pensively, before raising his spyglass to his eye again to scrutinize the columns of smoke curling up into the sky to the East, in the direction of the Soo Locks, or "The Passage" as most Lakemen called it now. "Calypso have a spat with the Canucks again?"

That was certainly possible, given Calypso's recent attack on Thunder Bay to punish them for "smuggling"...but Commodore Hackett didn't think so. The Passage was the only way for ships to cross from Lake Superior to Lake Huron...no Lakeman worthy of the name would dream of risking damaging it and sparking a vendetta with everyone who depended on the Lakes for their livelihood. Hackett had spent almost his entire life onboard ships..in fact, he'd even been born on one... before and after his people had given up their nomadic lifestyle on the Lakes and entered Lord Barnaky's service. And as for Calypso herself, she may well be crazy, but crazy like a fox. The tolls from passing lake traffic were the foundation of her wealth, she'd never cut off her nose to spite her face. He sighed and lowered his spyglass. 

"No, Harry", Hackett said calmly, "I have a bad feeling about this. Make best speed for The Passage. Go to GQ when we reach the mouth of the St Mary. And send the radioman to my quarters...I must report this." He then began to climb down the ladder leading into the turret, stopping momentarily to add, "Send for me if anything unusual happens."

"Aye, Commodore." Barret replied, then turning to a sailor, wearing a set of sound powered phones and the dull browninsh-gray hazard suit that was uniform underway, "Con, make revolutions for Flank Speed, come left to course 048."

After repeating the order verbatim, the sailor spoke it into the mouthpiece, passing it to the helmsman inside the pilot house behind them, and both men felt the deck vibrate beneath them as the monitor began to increase speed to her maximum speed of 15kts. 

[u][b]Three hours later - off Pointe Aux Pins[/b][/u]

The Relentless rapidly approached the Point Aux Pins, where the river widened and they would actually be able to see the Locks...though from the clouds of billowing, black smoke rising up from both the Canadian and US side of the river, he was not going to like what he saw. The nearest of the three other Monitors in his Division, the Retribution, and her escort of three gunboats, were only three hours away, but Hackett had decided to push ahead alone, trusting in the Monitor's thick armor, heavy guns, and well drilled crew to extricate him from any trouble. 

No sooner did they reach the bend in the river, turning starboard to stay well clear of the wreck of a old Pre-War guided missile cruiser, aground and rusting away in the Shallows to Starboard, a rare victory for the Canadians before being overwhelmed by Manifest Destiny before the Great War, did the lookout cry out the alarm.

"Enemy vessels to Port!"

Barret and Hackett swiveled together to look, spotting a pair of makeshift ironclads move away from shore and rapidly accelerating in their direction. Broad-beamed, shallow draft, ungainly vessels, they were crudely built and crudely armored, with rusting steel plates, and even railroad rails attached to sloping wooden casemates. On top of the casemate, figures could be seen capering and gibbering, waving melee weapons at them. Neither man was worried, makeshift vessels such as these were exactly the sort of vessel their Monitor was built to combat. 

"Looks like we've got a fight on our hands, Harry", Hackett said with a hit of anticipation to his voice, "Time to go inside, I think."

"Very good sir", Barret replied, gesturing towards to open hatch into the turret, "after you, sir!"

One after another, the sailor manning the phone, then Hackett, then Barret, clambered down into the turret, Barrett dogging the hatch securely behind him. Barret then entered the pilot house, while the Commodore went to his post, the Auxiliary Pilothouse on the aft turret as the Relentless steered to engage the enemy. 

At six hundred yards, the Relentless turned slightly to enable the aft turret to bear forward, and one at a time, fired her  four 8" rifles at the lead enemy vessel. the first shot was long, the second short, the third landed close enough to douse the forward end of the enemy vessel with water.....while the fourth was a solid hit on the front of the casemate. As the angle of slope on the casemate was poorly thought out, the armor was not sufficient to defeat the 8" High Explosive shell, which penetrated the armor and detonated inside the casemate, turning the gundeck into a blazing abattoir. With smoke pouring out of the shell's entry hole, and the forward gunports, the vessel, it's helmsman and bridge crew dead at their posts, careened hard to starboard, running hard aground on the river bank before it could begin going in circles. 

Inside the pilot house, Captain Barrett grinned with satisfaction. 

[i]One down, one to go.[/i] 

Turning deftly to starboard to avoid a attempt by the remaining ship to ram, both vessels fired their broasides into each other at less than two hundred yards. Few of the enemy shells hit, and those that did bounced harmlessly off [i]Relentless[/i]'s turrets. [i]Relentless[/i]'s shells, however, wreaked devastation on the crude vessel, and in the third volley, a shell landed under the ironclad's armor belt and found the magazine, and the vessel erupted in a massive explosion, showering debris for a hundred yards around. But before Captain Barret could celebrate, a cry came up from the lookout. 

"Enemy vessel to Starboard!"

Rushing to the starboard side of the armored conning tower to look out, Barret grimaced as he saw a third of the crude ironclads steaming towards them from around the wreck of the old cruiser...where they had been waiting for their comrades to herd Relentless into range. 

"Bastards!", Barret hissed, then picked up the 1MC to open up the shipwide communication circuit. "Rig for collision to starboard, stand by to repel boarders!"

On the decks of the ironclad, he could see dozens of men, equipped with ladders, waiting for the right time to deploy. Within moments, the ironclad wheeled about, running hard alongside the Monitor. Instantly, boarders leaped aboard the Monitor, hauling ropes to lash the two ships together using the monitor's own bollards, even as the ladders crashed down onto the Monitor's decks and the enemy swarmed aboard. now, for the first time, he could heard their battle cries, and the name they shouted praise to, and realized who they were.....The Cult. 

For a split second, fear gripped his heart, but it passed as quick as it came. Barrett was a professional, and knew his duty...the Brotherhood hadn't entrusted him with one of their precious capital ships for nothing. Issuing orders for the anti-boarding systems to be activated, he then instructed the gunners to swivel the turrets to bear on the starboard side and load the special flechette rounds they had been provided for just this purpose. Outside, live, high pressure steam began to shoot out of special ports in the turret sides, scalding anyone unfortunate enough to be in their way. Those cultists close to the turrets began to feverishly work to drove wedges, iron bars, ect between the turret and the deck to jam it into place...all in vain as the hydraulic drive that powered the turrets powered right through their attempts. No sooner did the turrets swivel into position than all four guns fired at once, issuing clouds of high velocity steel darts directly into the boarders.....sweeping the decks of both vessels clear like a steel broom. Barrett, not to mention the turret crews, could hear the screams and cries clearly. 

"Away all boarders!", Barrett said into the 1MC handset. In response, hatches both fore and aft opened, and power-armored Knights followed by armed sailors, emerged onto deck. As the Knights crossed the ladders and boarded the Cultist's ship....shots began to ring out as the sailors, gingerly navigating the decks, streaming with blood, began finishing off what few boarders had survived the hail of flechette rounds. From the enemy ship, more fighting could be heard below decks, but about ten minutes later, a Knight emerged onto the top of the casemate and tore down the banner at the mainmast of the enemy ship and hoisted the ensign of the Brotherhood in it's place....the battle was won. 


[u][b]The Passage - Four Hours later[/b][/u]

"They came from the North, down the 75 in the middle of the night", Cap said bitterly, "By the time we knew what was happening, we'd already been overrun." He then added, "should have known better and run when Calypso flew in and picked up Reggie the day before...the bitch!"

"What happened to Calypso?", Hackett asked.

"Got away clean in that Vertibird she stole from the The Thunder Bay people, I reckon", Cap answered. "Took Shelby and all her cronies with her....and left the rest of us to die." He spat on the floor in anger. "Kissed that bitch's ass for years...and [i]this[/i] was our reward." He waved around at the billowing smoke from the settlements on both sides of the river, and several of the non-essential structures at the lock. 

Hackett looked at the devastation around them, and shook his head sadly as the old man ranted about Calypso's betrayal as they questioned him about what he had witnessed. slowly, Hackett coaxed the story out of him. Calypso had taken her closest cronies and fled about a day ahead of the Cult's arrival. The Cult had sacked the Settlement and killed or carried off everyone not able to flee in time. They then burned the settlement to the ground and marched south down the Interstate. All that was left were the lock crews, they had been spared solely to work the locks...from orders they had found on the Cult ironclad they had captured they had been ordered to scout out Cherry City, what Traverse City was called now. Apparently they had spotted Relentless before they had left and decided to have a go at her first. Fortunately for Cap and his co-workers, most of the garrison had tried to garner glory for themselves by bolstering the crew of the Ironclads in their attempt to ambush and capture the Relentless...the few that had remained behind were easy prey for Relentless's Knight detachment. 

"Commodore", Cap finally asked, "What do you plan to do with the Locks?"

"It's not for me to say", Hackett said, "But I've already recommended to Barnaky that we occupy them forthwith."

Cap sighed with relief. 

"Best news I've heard in two days", Cap replied.