Skipper’s Military Days
Episode 2: The Hidden Island
Chapter 1: The Southern Raiders
WARNING: This story may contain material that is disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

    The something that hit the water slammed into it with such force that the whole ship rose and then fell back in the water roughly. Skipper was tossed around the deck like a…wait for it…Wonder pet! Wonder pets, wonder pets, we’re on our way! To help a baby penguin and save the day! We’re not too big and we’re not too tough! But when we work together we got the right stuff. Goooo, Wonder pets! YAY!
    Skipper was so sea sick he could barely stand, but he forced himself up using the deck for support. The whistling that pierced the air was enough to make him go deaf and huge bombs were flying through the air. They whistled before landing in the water, exploding on contact. The huge blasts of red and orange and smoke all around him was overwhelming. He wailed with terror and watched. One of those death bombs would surely hit the ship and they would be done for. This was even worse than the seal attack. He had never even heard of giant whistling exploding bombs before and was too scared to look away. He just watched the bombs explode the water around it.
    “Skipper!” he heard Kowalski scream. “Skipper, snap out of it!”
    Skipper was frozen at the scene. Kowalski grabbed him and shook him roughly until he could focus.
    “We’re under attack!” Kowalski explained, almost crying with fear. “The Southern Raiders are attacking us!
    “What do we do?”Skipper shrieked.
    “Let’s find the others. They will know what to do.”
    The two of them bolted across the deck, this time, for their lives. A bomb exploded so close to them that they fell down suddenly when the ship rocked. They picked themselves off the ground and kept going until they found everyone gathered by the giant catapult. Skipper thought it was just a manly prop, but now he knew what it was for. He trembled with fright, but felt safer being with TJ and the others.
    “We need to take defense,” TJ pointed out calmly. “Dave, go back to steering that boat. Everyone, we need to get the ammo out. We need explosives and bombs now.”
    The explosives general pressed a button attached to a control a box and the floor self destructed. Kowalski and Skipper winced with terror because they thought a bomb finally bombarded their ship. They thought that would be their last moment of life, but they were very much alive. The ground raised and there were thousands of the most dangerous weapons on earth on this very ship. Skipper had no idea the military tried to exterminate enemy penguins. That wasn’t right, was it? Well, it had to be if TJ thought it was. Besides, the others were trying to blow them to smithereens so it was perfectly legal to use lethal force right back at them.
    Everyone was busy. The penguins hauled a bomb on to the catapult and aimed it at their enemy. Lieutenant Austin yanked the rope holding the catapult down. The knot came undone and a bomb flew in the air. It whistled so loud that Skipper almost passed out and flew almost out of sight before there was a giant explosion near the light that was starting to look a lot more like a ship. The Southern Raiders were coming closer.
    “More! MORE!” TJ was throwing bombs on the catapult faster than Austin could set it up. They shot countless bombs that kept missing. The air was filled with the explosions of bombs.
    There was no warning, just another shrieking whistle in the air. BOOM! The ground rumbled harder than the worst hurricane and the ship was thrown back with such force that everyone was slammed against the smoke stacks. The catapult was completely knocked over and beyond repair.
    “We’ve been hit!”Austin reported. “Somewhere near the bow.”
    “Everyone, try to fix the catapult and do what you were trained to do,” TJ ordered. “Use whatever we have at full force. Kowalski and Skipper, report the damage of the ship.”
    “Yes sir,” Kowalski said loyally.
    The two of them ran as fast as they could to the back of the ship. By the sound of the BOOM, things didn’t look good. When they reached the back, they were not prepared for what they would see. The whole back of the deck of their precious Well Deserved was blown to pieces. There was wood everywhere and it was still raining out of the sky. There was a giant hole in the deck. Kowalski hesitantly followed Skipper to the damage and looked in the hole. The bomb hit the ship clean through the levels and they hit the boiler room which made everything explode. They weren’t sure how much was destroyed though. Even the worst battle scarred ship could survive without sinking. They could hear the water flooding into the ship, but it was pitch black down there. Skipper jumped down and landed on the broken and falling apart stairway that led all the way down to the bottom floor.
    “Come on, Kowalski!” he called from about five feet below. “Just jump.”
    “I…I don’t want to,” Kowalski whimpered. “It is scary down there.”
    “We have to. TJ told us too.”
    Kowalski whined and then jumped down next to Skipper. It sounded like a raging river down there and they could barely see the steps they were stepping on. One wrong step and they could plunge down there into the unknown. Skipper started to head down when Kowalski pulled him back. They just stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before Skipper shook off his flipper and tried to urge him down again. Kowalski’s nerve broke and be started crying uncontrollably.
    “I…c-can’t,” he sobbed. “I’m scared.”
    “Keep it together-“
    Kowalski reached out and hugged Skipper, pulling the confused penguin down to the ground with him. Skipper just stared straight ahead with huge unblinking eyes and felt Kowalski’s heavy breathing convulsing his own body. He was definitely not the affectionate type and didn’t know what to do. He finally tried to do something comforting by wrapping his wings around Kowalski and pulled the distressed private closer to him.
    “It’s not that bad,” he said assuringly, even though he was no good at it. “We will get through this together. The team is counting on us.”
    Kowalski just whined and buried his head deeper into Skipper’s neck. They were wasting precious time! He had to be patient though. He waited a few impatient minutes until Kowalski felt better enough to stop hugging Skipper. He still wouldn’t go down there. This time Skipper decided to do the hard way, probably what TJ and Austin would do if they caught Kowalski in such a situation. Skipper roughly pushed Kowalski off.
    “Let’s go, soldier.” Man, that sounded gold. “No moping on duty.”
    “I’m too scared.”
    With hesitation, he slapped Kowalski like TJ and Austin would do. Kowalski clutched his cheek and glanced at Skipper with hurt filled eyes.
    “Come on,” Skipper ordered assertively.
    Skipper led the way downstairs without checking to see if Kowalski was following. Sure enough, he didn’t want to be left behind and followed Skipper into the gloomy dark river. (Wanda, maybe Lionpaw and Heatherpaw are here!) He made it 20 steps without slipping and falling. He could hear the debris slam on the deck up above and wondered how the others were doing. The whole first and second bottom floors were completely blown out with nothing left. Then, he saw the river below. It was a torrent of black that swirled into the ship through a huge gaping hole and it was as deathly as a river.
    “This can’t be fixed,” Kowalski pointed out warily. “We’re going to sink. We need to get back to the others.”
    All of a sudden a giant wooden shard of the deck slashed down though the gaping tunnel and smashed into pieces right in front of Kowalski. A wave of fear shot though Skipper for he thought the wood hit Kowalski. It exploded and a penguin didn’t explode with it. He was so relieved that he wanted to hug something. He froze with terror and an icy feeling of a new fear exploded inside him when Kowalski wailed shrilly and he collapsed to the ground.
    Oh no. What happened. Why did Kowalski just collapse like that. Oh why?
    He ran around to Kowalski front and almost feinted with what he saw. He never saw such a bright shade of red before and it made him sick. The terrible liquid was coming from the thin black feathers of Kowalski’s right wing. Kowalski’s shrill crying was even more terrible than the bombs outside. He clutched his flipper closer to his chest and his white feathers were already turning red. Skipper was no medic, but he had to do something.
    “Let me see,” he demanded.
    Kowalski crumpled to the ground and continued to hold his flipper firmly with the other one. Skipper grabbed the injured one and forced it away from Kowalski’s body. The warm sickening blood was seeping through his own feathers. The flipper was slashed up and lacerated almost all the way up and was in terrible shape. It was fin halfway down, but the bottom half of it was twisted at a very awkward angle. That definitely didn’t look right. He touched it and cringed when Kowalski wailed with pain. He pressed down and felt that the bottom was dislocated. Luckily it wasn’t broken and Kowalski was very lucky even though he didn’t know it. This was almost worse to look at than the bombs.
    “Kowalski, come on,” he pleaded. “We have to get back up.”
    Kowalski attempted to stand up, but stress and weakness made him go back down again. Skipper panicked when he felt water touch his feet. The black swirling river pulled at his feet and completely engulfed everything below him. Penguins could swim better than anything, but that water was completely terrifying.
    “Kowalski!” he shrieked and shook his friend’s shoulder. “Kowalski!”
    His feet were engulfed in water and Kowalski still wasn’t responding. He quickly scooped Kowalski up in his arms and tried as hard as he could to lift Kowalski. He managed and started climbing up the stairs for both of them. He was going very slowly, but they were beating the water. Finally, both of them collapsed outside.
    “Stay here,” Skipper told Kowalski. Despite his discomfort of affection, he hugged Kowalski good-bye. Then he raced as fast as he could to TJ and the others. Luckily the ship wasn’t damaged in any other places, but the catapult was giving no success. He could just make out the massive ship of the Southern Raiders and see their Sea Ravens flag in the distance. They were coming.
    “Skipper, how’s the damage?” TJ demanded and shook him by the shoulders.
    “We’re going to sink,” he confirmed.
    “Listen, Skipper. The Southern Raiders are coming at our darkest hour and we’re going under in the middle of the ocean.”