Ch 2

No Rest for the Wicked

Bane

Speed is a key aspect of any battle. Be it the speed in which your ship can fly, or the speed of how quickly they can be destroyed. For the Dancer, speed always seemed to be against us. She's far from a fast or nimble ship, far from it, but her flexibility in combat is second to none.

"Ready to fire?" I shouted to the rafters above, only to be answered by the deafening hum of the weapon firing.

"Daka daka," Morbose shouted, with a hearty laugh.

Laughing with him, I pulled the lever above my wheel, pumping the engines with moonshine for an extra burst of speed. As soon as the ship jumped forward, I could feel the look of rage come from Ruij, as he rushed to stop the engines from flying off the hull. The Squid's crew was close enough to see now, almost well enough to watch the look of terror on their faces as they ducked for cover from the bullets pelting their hull.

"Harpoon loaded!" Callum yelled, obviously eager to take a shot.

"Fire!" I commanded, pointing my arm at the ship for good measure. A quiet hum followed, as the Harpoon shot across the ever decreasing space between our ships, and the Gatling paused to be reloaded. Flipping the moonshine lever again, our speed decreased drastically, but the momentum kept us going straight for their hull. "Brace!" I shouted above the roar of the wind and engines, as our ship slammed into theirs, spinning it to the side. Recovering from the initial rattle of contact, I cut power to the engines, bringing us to a complete stop next to the wounded Squid.

"Hooks ready! All aboard who's going aboard," I shouted again, my throat already growing irritated from the continuous yelling. Grabbing the hook and rope stacked neatly by the helm, I watched as Callum and Morbose grabbed their respected tools, waving them over their heads like a lasso ready to rope the steed. Callum threw his first, aiming directly for the large balloon above the Squid's hull. It was a surprisingly perfect throw given his thin frame, grabbing onto the metal framework surrounding the balloon. Without so much as a second thought, the boy gripped his rope and swung across the small divide between our ship and theirs, only to have his momentum fall short as the Squid unexpectedly shot forward.

It jerked our entire vessel off its knocker, dropping Ruij and me to the floor as the rear of the front of the ship swung around. The Harpoon cable had managed to find a firm place to hold onto in the Squid's main balloon, leaving us to her mercy as she dragged us along the sky. Callum had managed to hold onto his rope, and was gripping it for dear life as he was swung in the air behind the accelerating Squid.

"I'm going to cut the cable!" Morbose shouted, running across the scaffold above.

"Belay that!" I ordered, trying to formulate a plan as I watched Callum dance helplessly in the wind, his girlish screams pierced the howling wind. "We cut that rope, the Squid will escape, taking Callum with them."

Leaning over the railing of the scaffold, Morbose looked down on me as I took my position on the helm once more. "What are we going to do then?" he asked, as I stood their weighing my options.

Pyramidions could never keep pace with a Squid, meaning that so long as the Harpoon held, their ship would be slowed down immensely. Our weight on their port side would also make flying straight neigh impossible, as our hulking presence would cause her to lose control. Whatever her Captain was planning, odds were he wasn't planning on getting away.


Elliot

The pirates were on us faster than even Church could react, coming out of the clouds like a bottle of beer protruding from a keg of ice, an almost majestic sight to behold. The dust storms had managed to hide their advance, long enough so that by the time I spotted them, they were already within weapons range.

"Get down," the Captain shouted, pulling me to the deck of the ship as bullets whizzed over our heads. My training had told me that a Pyramidion would aim for the hull with a Gat, weakening the armor enough so that a mortar would destroy us almost instantly. But these weren't trained sailors of any navy, no they were half drunk pirates intent on wounding the Normandy enough to drag our boat back to some port. And if there was anyone who would rather fly her straight into the sand than enemy hands, it was Church Shepard.

The Gatling fire suddenly ceased, allowing me to peek my head up off the wooden deck, in time to watch as the Pyramidion slammed into us, causing me to slide across the rather small deck. Feeling my legs were now above air, I grabbed the railing in time to stop my whole body from falling overboard, even as the ship decided to swing itself wildly to the side.

"A little help please," I shouted, gripping onto the thin metal piece for dear life.

"I got you," Blueberry cried out, running over to help me up. She grabbed my arms, while the rest of my body dangled off the side, hundreds of feet off the shifting sand below. Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up with her helping, one of her hands pulling me from my shirt collar, while the other pulled at my sleeve. With one final heave, she managed to have me back on solid ground, while her and I both fell over onto the deck.

"Thanks, Blue," I sighed, allowing a small moment to rest as I overcame my fear and relief.

"Enough sleeping, get off your feet and man your stations!" Yelled a voice from the helm. Somehow, Church had managed to run back to his wheel without getting blown off his feet, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he had done so by jumping over the small gap that had separated the main deck and the side balloon.

"Aye sir," I shouted back, jumping up and helping Blue to her feet. Training would have to make due for experience for now, god knows Church burned those drills into our minds long enough. Once we were both back on our feet, I ran to the forward gun, thankful that the Flamer still appeared to be operational.

"Hold onto something and brace!" Church shouted again, giving me just enough time to grab onto the Flamer as we jolted forward. Looking back, I started to piece together what exactly our Captain had planned.

The Pyramidion had managed to land a Harpoon directly into the port side of our balloon, and I could tell by Godo's frantic cursing that at least one of our engines was down from the Gatling fire. Escaping wouldn't be easy, and a counter attack would be next to impossible. Something else caught my eye, and for a moment, I thought the desert heat had started to play tricks on me. One of the Pyramidion's crew had jumped the gun on boarding, and was now desperately trying to hang onto a rope as we gained speed. From the sound of the shrill screams coming from the person, I could only imagine it was either a woman or a twelve year old boy hanging from our vessel.

"Elliot, on the rear gun. Wait to fire mines on my signal," Church ordered, shouting through grinding teeth as he struggled to regain control of the ship. "Blue, check the armor, then help Godo get that damn engine back online!"

I sprinted back across the deck, dodging Blueberry as she jumped below deck to check the machine that pumped a coolant water mixture into the ship's hull to act as a thin layer of armor. Reaching the small flight of stairs, I bounded up them, taking the short number of steps two at a time, to find the Mine Launcher waiting for me. The screaming girl was still swinging back and forth from his grappling hook, and I could see two men of the enemy crew arguing back and forth, though I wasn't close enough to tell what exactly they were saying. "Ready on mines," I said, activating the spiked cannibal like ammo.

"The engine lost its air intake valve, it got shot up all to pieces," Godo shouted from behind me, half of his body had vanished into the metal frame work of the engine itself, as he struggled to remove any broken components that might hamper its performance. "I can't even get the thing take out to fix it!" he cursed, as Blueberry ran up to join him.

Looking back, I could see a devilish look in her eye, and physically braced myself for what would happen next. Without so much as a second thought, she swung her leg back and kicked the engine with all the force she could muster, visibly shaking the machine on its now frail hinges. "Ow," cried the man still inside of it, as he banged his head against the metal lining. "Why did you... oh." Pulling himself out of the machine, Godo threw a crumpled piece of metal to the ground, before grabbing his spanner and diving right back into it. "There got it, try it now, Church!"

And with that, the engine roared to life, coming back to full power like the others. "Good," the Captain shouted. "Dropping some tar and turning to starboard, Elliot slow them down."

"Aye sir," I responded, taking aim with the mine launcher as a thick black cloud formed behind us. The Launcher gave a heavy kick back as it shot the heavy ammo from its barrel, and I started the process of reloading another mine. A split second later, and the spiked ball deployed a square balloon, inflating it so that it could hang in the air peacefully. However, its brief moment of piece was immediately shattered as the Pyramidion caused it to explode across its hull.

"They're more or less disabled," Godo said, standing directly beside me as I prepped to fire another mine just in case. "Orders Cap?"

By now, I could feel our speed decrease as Church lowered the thrust. "Hold all fire," he said, cutting all power to the engines and giving us a kind of strange quiet to behold. Unfortunately for the swinging pirate, his momentum caused him to swing forward as we and the other ship slowed down, forcing him to fly through the deck and the balloon and fall as soon as the rope caught tension against the side of the balloon. I couldn't help but chuckle as the pirate dropped form his rope and landed against the deck hard on his ass, the screams stopping as soon as we heard a loud thud.

Walking down the steps, Godo pulled out the machete from his belt, pointing it at the man (it was clearly obvious now that the shrieks had actually come from a full grown man). "Stay down," he ordered, his command backed up by shoving the blade into his face.

Church walked over to the man, motioning for Blueberry to take the wheel as he strolled to the main deck. Meanwhile I kept an eye on the Pyramidion behind us, the tar had managed to gunk up their weapons and engines, and the mine took out what ever might have remained working, but I wasn't too keen on letting our enemies sit so idly behind us. Without their engines, there was no way for them to move and ram us again. Looking back to Godo and the pirate, I was interested to see what exactly the Captain was planning on doing here.

"Now, who are you?" Church said, pulling his pistol from its holder under his jacket.

"I um, er..." the pirate stuttered.

"I suggest you give him an answer," Godo snickered, using his free hand to pinch the piece of straw he always held in his teeth. "Captain doesn't like when folks mumble over his orders."

"First Gunner Callum, of the Sky Dancer," the pirate responded, swallowing a lump that had built in his throat.

"Who's your Captain?" Church asked, his voice low and leveled.

"Flynn Bane, sir."

"Then please, stand up. I'd like to meet this, 'Mr. Bane.'"