Pirate Legacy
Chapter One
My name's Matt Exeter and I live in a wondrous time of exploration and adventure, when tall ships fly the endless skies and brave the Stormgates of the Spiral.
During the colonization of the Spiral, tensions between the four greatest military powers of the Spiral: Marleybone, Valencia, Monquista, and Polaris reached their breaking point with the Polarian Wars. As the war went on, some mercenaries began to switch allegiances based on who offered the greatest profit, while some eventually swore off all allegiances and pillaged all ships they saw. Thus the first pirates were born.
Now the war has ended and all the great navies are broken and licking their wounds, allowing pirates to pillage and plunder to their heart's desire. Thus, the Golden Age of Piracy has begun and the pirates even changed the thieves' den of Skull Island into a republic.
However, Marleybone's Royal Navy is beginning to regroup, and Valencia's navy of clockwork soldiers is growing. The new Clockwork Armada has made it their personal duty to hunt down and bring piracy to an end and claim the entire Spiral under their flag, while rumors of pieces of a treasure map leading to an entire island made of gold have brought many young greenhorns to set sail.
As for me, my parents were lost on a search for buried treasure, and so I was raised by my mother's brother, a trader named Haytham Kenway in Port Regal, a colony of Marleybone in Skull Island.
While on a short trading voyage with my best friend, Rena Raden, who worked as a deckhand aboard my uncle's ship, an Armada ship stopped us and took Rena and me in for questioning. Actually, that's the polite way of putting it. They really just arrested us for no reason, and so we were locked away in the brig of an Armada ship. We were outmanned and outgunned, so it was either that, or be blasted to smithereens by the Clockworks' cannons.
I have blue eyes, and my slightly long black hair could use some washing. I hadn't been given a new set of clothes, a welcome change while sailing, so I was still wearing my favorite blue coat over a white shirt, and blue pants held up by a black leather belt with a red sash tied around my waist, and black boots. In another cell across the hallway from mine was my best friend, Rena Raden.
Born in Scrimshaw, a town filled with scum and villainy, before moving to Port Regal with her mother, a bookseller, Rena was as sneaky as a Wharf Rat, yet was also kind, caring, and understanding. She was a slim, petite young woman with golden blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders, and almond-shaped emerald green eyes. She was wearing a brown vest over a white shirt and brown pants held up by a black leather belt, and black boots.
We then felt the ship rumble and we heard cannon blasts on the upper decks. I then heard two voices coming from the main deck that didn't belong to any of the Clockworks. Were they here to free us?
"Get down, she's going to blow!" The first voice said in a pirate's accent. I then heard something go "BOOM!" like a gunpowder keg, and the speaker started wheezing and coughing, along with his friend. "It's one of these cells! Check the ones down there, monkey!"
"I'm on it." The monkey said in a thick Polarian accent. The source of the second voice then came down the stairs from the main deck. The monkey was wearing a Marleybone officer's uniform: a blue three cornered hat, a blue officer's jacket decorated with medals and a red sash, white trousers and knee-socks, black shoes with brass buckles, and he held a cutlass in his right paw. He probably would've commanded a lot of respect, if he wasn't only three feet tall.
Following him down the stairs was a man with a white beard. His left green eye twinkled merrily, the other one covered by a black eye patch, and he had a brass hook for a left hand. He wore a black three-cornered hat with a white Jolly Roger on it, a red coat over a white shirt, a yellow scarf and black leather belt with a holster for a flintlock pistol around his waist, brown trousers, white knee-socks, and black shoes with brass buckles, and he too wielded a cutlass.
"Is this the prisoner we're looking for?" The monkey asked, turning to face the pirate.
"It's hard to say." The pirate said, stroking his beard. "You there, what's your name, pirate?"
"My name is Matt Exeter and my friend over there is Rena Raden." I said as I got up from my sitting position against the wall and ran over to my cell door.
"I told you!" The monkey said. "He is the one."
"Well lad, I be Boochbeard, and this is me first mate, Mr. Gandry!" The pirate said as the monkey unlocked our cell doors. As Rena and I opened the doors of our cells, Mr. Gandry unlocked a chest at the end of the hall that I knew held confiscated weapons. Mr. Gandry opened the chest and tossed both of us a sword. We all then felt and heard the ship rumble.
"Uh oh, that sounds bad! We'd best be out of here, quick!" Boochbeard said.
"Quickly now, go up the stairs at the end of the hall!" Mr. Gandry said, pointing to the stairs leading to the main deck.
"Come on, let's go!" Rena said as we began running towards the stairs and sweet freedom. As we entered the main deck, four Armada marines were standing below the forecastle, with their leader, Deacon standing above them.
"The prisoner must not be allowed to escape! Take them!" Deacon commanded.
Like the other Clockworks, he had a white mask for a face, and he wore a black three-cornered hat over a black barrister's wig. He wore a black cloak over a dark blue coat, white gloves, yellow trousers, white knee-socks, black shoes with brass buckles, and he held a cane in his left hand.
A marine flanked by two musketeers approached me while other groups moved to engage the others. They wore the same white masks and three-cornered hats as Deacon, but they had white barrister's wigs.
They wore steel breastplates over dark blue uniforms and black boots and shoes. The marine was armed with a halberd and dark blue shield with a gray gear emblem on it, while the musketeers wielded sparquebuses.
"Beware those spark throwers!" Boochbeard warned. "They generate a burst of electricity to stun you into submission!"
"We'll have to fight our way back to the Flying Sloth!" Mr. Gandry said, readying his cutlass.
"This is it! Run up to those Armada goons to start fightin'!" Boochbeard said.
"Let's go!" I said as I started running towards the marine. It wasn't the first time I've been in a fight before, and I was eager to settle the score against the Clockworks.
I stabbed him with my saber before the marine could react, and then I spun to the right for a horizontal slash. I then spun into the air and slashed from above, leaving a few good marks from my attacks. I then leapt backwards before the marine could bash me with his shield.
The Armada marine then raised his halberd and slashed downwards, which I narrowly avoided. He tried for a horizontal slash, and I leaped backwards. He then finished by trying to stab me with the spearhead atop the halberd, which I sidestepped.
"Shall we start?" Rena called as she ran towards me. I nodded as I turned my attention back to the hurt marine. As he was about to attack, I slashed his chest with all my might and he fell onto the deck, smoke pouring out of the chinks in his armor.
Rena then ran up towards the Armada musketeer, and made three quick slashes across his chest before leaping out of the way of a sparquebus charge at almost point-blank range. I then noticed the other musketeer aiming his sparquebus at me, and I bent backwards to avoid the electrical burst.
"Don't just stand there! Capture them!" Deacon commanded the four marines kept in reserve.
"The Clockworks just keep coming!" I called as the others looked up from their defeated Clockworks.
"Stand fast! Take out the closest ones first!" Boochbeard ordered. "Let me even the odds!"
I then gripped the hilt of my saber with both hands and brought it down hard onto the Armada musketeer, leaving a huge slash mark with smoke pouring out of it as the Armada musketeer fell to the deck, destroyed.
Rena had leapt up into the air and kicked the other musketeer in the face, causing smoke to pour out of the eyeholes in the white mask as the Armada musketeer fell onto his back, allowing Rena to deal the finishing blow.
Boochbeard, who had sheathed his cutlass, then threw one of the gunpowder kegs aboard the deck at the four approaching marines, covering them in gunpowder, and then he drew a pistol and fired a charge at the gunpowder, igniting the Clockworks in an explosion.
"Victory is ours!" Mr. Gandry cheered, raising his saber.
"Impressive. It seems we've underestimated you, young Pirate." Deacon said. "Your friends won't be there to save you next time. You'll regret making an enemy of the Armada. Enjoy your freedom... while it lasts!"
Then out of nowhere, Deacon pulled out a golden flintlock pistol and fired an electrical charge at the gunpowder kegs near Boochbeard, causing them to explode in a cloud of smoke and send Boochbeard flying and landing next to Mr. Gandry.
"The smoke is clearing, but the Armada leader, he is gone!" Mr. Gandry cried, and as I looked around, I could see no sign of Deacon, which made me wonder if he was trained by Ninja Pigs. Silly, I know, but still...
"That blast nearly did me in! I can barely see! Matt, Rena, get to the Flying Sloth! Matt, I know you know how to pilot a ship, so you'll have to sail us to safe harbor.
"Matt, Rena, this ship is dying! Cross the gangway to the Flying Sloth so we can sail away!" Mr. Gandry said urgently as he put Boochbeard's arm on his shoulders.
We didn't need any further encouragement as we dashed across the gangway to the Flying Sloth. We made it just in time, because after Mr. Gandry and Boochbeard had crossed and their crew had removed the gangway, the Armada ship exploded.
"Let's get going! Anchors aweigh!" I called as I took the wheel from one of Boochbeard's crew. After the crew pushed the bars of the capstan that raised the anchor, I called for half sail.
"Well done, we are underway!" Mr. Gandry cheered as the Flying Sloth began moving. Somehow, I knew in my heart we were sailing towards a brighter future.