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XIV

Jason

Jason woke to an alarm, which was not a good way to start the day. The BRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGG G echoed through the halls of the Argo II, and his eyes shot open, wondering what it was this time.

He quickly dressed and ran up the stairs to the helm.

"Jason!" Leo called, eyes frantic.

"What's up?" He asked. There were no monsters attacking any of the fleet, which Jason had decided to accompany to the plains of Marathon.

There was one ship missing- the one that used to be the 1st cohort's, but was sent home dishonorably.

"We've got a situation here," Leo said to him. He thrust a mic at Jason. "Talk to Malcolm and Nyssa."

Malcolm and Nyssa were on board one of the scout ships a couple miles ahead.

"Hello?" Jason asked into the microphone.

Nyssa's voice came on. "Jason?" She asked.

"What's up?"

"We've got a bad situation. It's a mortal fleet. They've spotted us."

"Excuse me?" Jason asked, not sure he heard correctly.

"Yeah, a mortal NATO fleet. They've sent us a radio message demanding us to halt and disarm weapons in 5 minutes, or they will fire. Apparently, they think we're some kind of hostile battle group."

He felt his face pale as Jason listened to Nyssa talk. The first thing that came to mind was to blow the mortals out of the water, of course, but he pushed the thought aside.

They couldn't be harmed unless absolutely necessary. "Try and get them on radio. We can get Piper to charmspeak them," he said after a moment and beckoned Piper over.

He waited. Malcolm's voice said, "Negative. They've denied radio contact."

This was one of the times when they needed Percy the most. He could throw up a big wave, or manipulate the Mist, or something. "What choices do we have?" Asked Jason.

"We can fire on them… maybe try to outrun them, but I doubt it, considering they're full steam already on intercept course. Malcolm can try to hack into their computer, but it'll take to long."

"Go for the hack. We'll find some way to delay them." Jason thought. How?

"He's on the computer now. Switching comms."

"This'll take a while, Jason. Mortal coders are more resourceful then you think."

"You mean you might not be able to do it?" Jason asked and immediately regretted the words.

The prideful son of Athena's voice shot back, "Who said that? Or maybe I can just stop everything and get shot to death?"

"Sorry, man. Just work on it."

What to do, what to do?

"4 minutes," Nyssa said.

"Leo? What do you have to delay them?" Jason asked.

Leo thought for a moment. Or at least, it seemed like it.

"I can try to snipe their weapons, but at 14 miles, I doubt we can make the shots. It's a big fleet- 2 submarines, 8 destroyers, 5 cruisers, a few assorted small warships, and-"

Leo swore. "What is it?" Jason asked, peering at the screen but unable to figure out what the different dots meant.

"This is not good man. There are 2 battleships in the center of the fleet, surrounding an aircraft carrier."

"So?" Jason asked, not seeing the importance.

"So? Battleships haven't been in service since 1992!" Leo practically shouted, which meant he was very stressed. "These 2 are massive, almost twice the size of the Iowa Class!"

He touched a couple buttons on the screen, and pinched it. The radar map zoomed into a hologram image of a ship.

Leo shot out some facts. "16 16-inch guns, mounted on 4 massive rotating turrets. 12 9 inch guns in smaller ones. Dozens of high caliber mounted turrets, 2 Centurion C-RAMs located fore and aft, and a bunch of small weapons. And the armor…. Titanium reinforced steel, plated with iridium throughout the ships to prevent fires from spreading. I think iridium has a melting point of like, 2000 degrees Celsius or something All the shells are specially designed to smash through armor, and then explode.."

Even though Jason knew nothing about ships, 16 inch guns sounded pretty big. "So can we take them in a fight?" He asked.

Leo snorted. "Of course we can. Don't underestimate my baby. But we'll take causalities, and might have to delay repairing damage."

Jason asked Malcolm again, "How's the hack going?"

The response was frantic and wild, "I'm trying! I've bypassed the firewall and security systems. What do you want me to do?"

"See if you can disable the ships' weapons for a while."

"Ok… entering command structure…." He swore. "Some clever mortal evaded one of my commands. I have to start over again or he'll find out it's us and fire."

"1 minute!" Nyssa warned.

Jason hesitated for a moment, but managed to force the words out of his mouth. "Leo… arm the ships. Prepare to fire."

"Excuse me?" Leo asked, disbelief in his eyes.

"Arm the fleet. Aim for the battleships," Jason said, his voice hoarse.

"Yes… yes sir."

He tapped some buttons, and sighed. "You're sure there's no other way?" He asked.

"Positive," Jason replied, still guilty at about what he was going to do.

"30 seconds!" Nyssa called. "How's the hack going, Malcolm?"

"I don't know!" He shouted back, sounding on the verge of breaking down. "The command deck is a whole new level of security! I haven't seen this kind since the Pentagon! And don't even get me started on that!"

"Ships are armed," Leo whispered. His finger hovered over a red button that probably meant "fire."

Jason took a deep breath. "Fi-" But he was cut off by a massive BOOM! He hesitated for a moment, wondering what was wrong. Nothing.

Then suddenly, something blew up 5 feet in front of Jason, hitting the Argo II's armor. He was thrown backwards and hit the deck hard. The mortals had fired on them.

As he got up, he shouted, even though he couldn't hear himself, "Fire, Leo! Unload!"

Another massive shell whizzed so close to Jason's head the wind pushed him over again. Several hundred meters behind him, an explosion rocked the deck of another ship, small cracks appearing in the Celestial Bronze hull.

The Argo II returned fire, cannons unloading and rockets soaring up. Smoke from other ships shot up as well as guns fired and ballistas shot.

Someone-Piper- grabbed his arm and heaved him up. "Leo! Where are you, Leo!" He shouted. Smoke from the explosion still blocked sight.

Someone, hopefully Leo replied, "Here!" *cough* "Dude, help me get-"*cough* "Get this off of me!"

Jason followed the sound of the voice and found Leo trapped under a smashed railing. He helped toss the debris aside. "Thanks, man," he gagged.

"Did they fire?"

Leo paled. "No. It wasn't them. It was something else from the other direction."

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Bad cliffhanger, sowwy! Reviews are loved! Can we hit 500 by chapter 26?

Quote of the chapter- Three can keep a secret, if two are dead. D:

Entertainment of the chapter- Medieval II: Total War- Third Age Total War mod.

Song of the chapter- It's time by Imagine Dragons