Crack Ships Novels & Stories

And he would not falter. As he ascended, pressure warped around him. The clean, gradual shift between deep and shallow twisted into violent jolts. Cold bit into his skin, then searing warmth, then cold again, as if the water had forgotten its own laws. He passed reefs he had known since boyhood, his private gardens of coral that once blazed with impossible colors. Now they were skeletal husks, their hues leeched to gray. Once intricate structures crumbled beneath invisible stress, collapsing into rubble. Tiny fish that had made the reefs their bustling cities fled into the open water, directionless, exposed.

[The Cradle of Shadows] The Vane interceptor groaned as it banked sharply away from the Highlands Vault, its thrusters screaming in protest against the manual override. Below them, the fleet of black gunships—Lucien’s personal hounds—scattered like startled crows, their formation broken by the sudden, erratic maneuver of the courier ship.

But it was a crack. And cracks could spread.

I told the machine that it was a mistake. ​The explosion was not a burst of light. It was a roar of pressure. The lead ship’s hull buckled from the inside out, the iron plates peeling back like the skin of a rotted fruit. A massive plume of black smoke and orange flame erupted into the sky, the shockwave knocking the neighboring ships off their course. ​“It is working!” Thorne roared, his voice joining the howl of the pack.

Ships, particularly warships, have watertight compartments to stop internal flooding from torpedoes, bombs, or other hull damage to the ship. Sailors slam the heavy steel doors (hatches) shut and seal them tight, also known as dogging the hatches. This keeps the ship afloat during times of crisis.

A deafening crackling sound appeared as the Louchuan ship had been shaking for a while now. The sound was a bad omen because it was a symptom of the severe damage to the ship resulting from several battles that took place both on the deck and on the Louchuan ship. "God damn it! I guess, after I've trained hard for the past hundred years, defeating them is an easy matter! I was wrong, who exactly are they?! I doubt their human status!” Xu Xiaofei grumbled inwardly. Even now, the eagle's head stick had suffered several cracks after colliding with the enemy's mace and sword.

Crack. Shatter. Silence. Or maybe just to my ears.

I gripped the wheel. “It’s already cracking.”

My dream opened the floodgates and memories pouring in, washing over me, drowning me. Down for months, I missed everything, including seven surgeries to fix my body, and I would need more in the months to come. The doctor came in, but I only caught some of what he said. Tibia and femur displaced fractures, which accounted for the brace. Apparently, I got a knee replacement as well as plates and screws to hold all the broken pieces of bone in my leg together while they healed. Basically, my leg was fucked, and even they weren’t sure if it was going to heal right.

I find a crack along the main hull, down at the very bottom of the ship. We’re slam lucky they were still working on this ship when we stole it. The ship is full of tools and supplies and everything they were using to finish it. I find a welding machine and I spend the rest of the day repairing the crack. By the time I finish it, it looks better than it did before we took off from Isroth. In total, the entire day, Valen and I say less than ten words to each other. We’re both lost in our own heads. We need to not constantly run through it all. So that night, we both climb into bed. We don’t say anything.