Chapter 29 October 406 Cuban Archipelago-New vs Old

            Muuza’s ships waited nine days for the Cuban fleet to arrive. Although they waited, they were not idle in the least; they couldn’t be. Muuza fully recognized that the Cubans were decent warriors. In their last conflict, he had more than a hundred casualties. Furthermore, the Cubans liked to attack at night. To combat this, Muuza kept his ships moving at night, scattered buoys with lanterns in wide arcs, and sent his trimarans out to look for any Cuban ships. Muuza even had his men take out a hot air balloon and scan the seas during the day. The first day it was out, it caused widespread panic on the nearby island.

            On day nine, one of the trimarans signaled the balloon that they had spotted a fleet heading toward the island on the opposite side of the island. Muuza wasn’t too surprised, as the Cubans seemed to really like surprise attacks, and landing on the back of the island, and carrying their ships across so they could attack at night from an unexpected position was an obvious tactic; it was why he was looking for the fleet. If they succeeded he would lose the advantage his steam rifles gave him, so he wanted to fight them before they could use nightfall to their advantage.

            With the Cuban fleet spotted, Muuza’s fleet immediately set sail toward them. Thanks to the accommodating weather, they were able to keep the balloon in the air as they sailed around the island and toward their opponents. The best thing about this situation was that the Cuban fleet had no idea that they had been spotted, nor did they have any way to know it. They were not yet in sight of the island, and even if they were, it's unlikely the people on the island would be able to communicate with them about the hot air balloon.

            Despite their advantage, sailing was slow, so it took an hour for them to make their way around the island and close enough to the fleet for the balloon to spot it. It took another hour for the Cuban fleet to spot the balloon, but they had no way to know that the hot air balloon was man-made, much less that it was in use by Muuza’s fleet. An hour later and the Cuban fleet spotted the sails of Muuza’s fleet.

            Once the Cuban fleet spotted the sails of Muuza’s fleet, they had no choice but to attack, as they had learned trimarans were faster than longships. They would have preferred to attack at night, but the Cuban fleet was led by a very experienced pragmatist who understood things didn’t always go according to plan. Besides, his fleet had several of the new longships upgraded with ballista and fire weapons. Furthermore, he had two hundred and three ships, to Muuza’s ten mother ships and thirty trimarans. He figured he had enough ships to outflank the enemy fleet during battle.

            As for Muuza, he was not intimidated by the enemy fleet in the slightest. Although the enemy fleet was five times larger than his, Muuza’s fleet badly outgunned them. Each of his thirty trimarans had one pressure vessel powering five steam rifles, giving them one hundred and fifty artillery pieces. Each of his ten motherships had ten pressure vessels with five rifles each, which gave the motherships five hundred artillery pieces. From what Muuza could tell, only thirty or so of the enemy ships had ballista, and each was awkwardly affixed to their ships. The enemy longships were, for the most part, filled with raiders, who likely expected to do nighttime raids on his ships. It's why Muuza wasn’t about to fight this enemy at night on their terms. He had the superior weapons and technology, and he was going to use them to surprise the Cubans and force them to the negotiating table.

            As the two fleets headed toward each other, they formed up very differently. The Cuban fleet spread out, clearly attempting to envelop Muuza’s smaller fleet. As for Muuza’s fleet, the trimarans sailed in front of and to the sides of his ten mother ships. The two fleets continued closing in on each other, and once the Cuban fleet was in firing range of the steam rifles, Muuza had his men hold their fire. He was very aware of the range and limitations of ballista, and so he had his men wait until they were just outside of the range of the ballista before they opened fire.

            As they closed in on range Muuza sent orders to sink the ships, and avoid shooting the men on board. They wanted a peace deal after all, and wholesale slaughter would make that more difficult.

            Ktcha sounded out across the sea, causing dozens of Muuza’s men’s ears to ring, and deafening more. The bullets traveled faster than the sound they made, so before the Cubans heard the sound, dozens of their boats spontaneously developed hundreds of holes, and many the sailors on the boats began hurting for no reason they could tell. Just as they wondered where the holes came from, they heard Ktcha.

            After the first volley, Muuza look through his telescope, saw the damage, and ordered his men to shoot undamaged ships. Their second volley fired seven seconds after their first.

            About the time they fired their second volley, the sailors on the Cuban ships began to realize they were bleeding. About the time Muuza’s men fired their third volley, at a third set of ships, sailors in the first ships noticed that some of the holes were letting in water, and they began bailing out their ships. Just before Muuza’s men fired their fourth volley on a fourth set of ships, men on the first set of ships to take fire began noticing some of the men on their ships were already dead. At this moment nearly twenty seconds had passed, and a quarter of the Cuban fleet was already sinking, and Muuza’s men didn’t even need to reload yet. In one minute two thirds of the Cuban fleet had significant enough damage they wouldn’t make it to land before they sank, by a minute and thirty seconds all the Cuban ships were sinking, and Muuza ordered his men to shoot the ships with the least amount of damage.

            Massive amounts of confusion embroiled the Cuban fleet. As far as they were concerned, the holes appearing in their ship and men were witchcraft, especially since it was followed by the loud noises. They wanted to get away from the magical ships, but their ships were already sinking; even so, the ships scattered to the best of their abilities, and within an hour every Cuban ship had sunk.

            Muuza ordered his men, “Let them swim to the nearest island. I am sure that once they reach it, they will want to talk.”

            With that, Muuza’s fleet sailed back to the village to wait for further peace talks.

            Muuza had no way to know this, but it took almost twelve hours for the sailors swim to the island. Because they were sailors, the sons of sailors, they had long experience swimming, and so nearly sixty percent of the Cubans in the fleet made it to the island. Each was very aware that they only survived because their enemy did not want to kill them. Two days later, they sent out a delegation to Muuza’s fleet.

            Muuza once again met them in his stateroom. “I take it you are willing to allow us to sail your waters without harassing us?”

            The local leader looked down and said, “Its not so simple. I cannot make that decision on my own.”

            “Who can?”

            “The Landowners Meet. They are our governing body, and they are on the main island.”

            “Show us where it is.”

            “I don’t have permission.”

            “It can't be too far away if you were able to gather a fleet of two hundred ships in just nine days. I can wait for a few more.”

            “They will want to know if you can give them your magic.”

            “My magic? I do not recognize that word.”

            “Your power. You were able to create holes in the ship and our men. You have great power. Can you share that?”

            Muuze wasn’t sure if he understood what they meant by magic, as the word wasn’t one he was familiar with, but if he understood right, then it was a real boon. “I cannot, only people born after our first king have the power. It is not something that can be shared, only inherited.”

            “I have a daughter you can have. Also sisters. In fact, you can have any woman, or every woman on the island if you want.”

            “No, that won't do. I have a responsibility to any children I father.”

            “That’s too bad. Be patient, and I will get permission for you to come to the Landowners Meet.”

            “I will wait fifteen days. If I don’t hear anything by then, then I will travel wherever I please and sink your ships on my whims.”