One Piece: Wolves of the Sea
Chapter 2: The Cannons Still Roar
My mother's tired and tested tactics work even as Marine vessels grow larger, and bristle with more guns. Plumes of white smoke mixed with gunpowder filled the air as the Cerberus unleashed a nine gun broadside against an armed merchant vessel. The chain-shot from the center gun in the gundeck cut through the air to the mast of the ship.
The mast fell like a fresh fallen timber. In truth, the life on the waves is not all like this. If your crew is not prepared properly for a voyage, you may lose more mates to disease and starvation than actual battle against the Marines or another pirate crew. That is how mutinies happen. This was our first engagement with the Marines so far this voyage.
The battle cries of the She-Wolves mixed with those of the Marines. The wounded were many on our side. A shot from a Marine cannon wisped through the upper deck. One of my crew was in the shot's way. Her head was there for a split second, and seemed to vanish with a small splatter of blood in all directions, and a blooding stump of her neck.
The shot went across the ship, and hit the water in the distance. The poor lass. Her death was quick. In the fighting between ships, there were crew on the ship's deck with missing arms and limbs, and crying out in pain. Belladonna and I raced down to help. Belladonna hastily grabbed the fallen lass's rifle, and aimed and fired a shot, killing a Marine.
From the slash of my sword to the shot from Carabinieri's rifle and pistols, we helped rally our crew and fought back, "Get the planks ready, she is ripe for the taking, PREPARE TO BOARD HER!" I called out, and my crew responded amid the roar of the guns. A shell from our guns hit the aft of the ship, and I saw a Marine fall into the sea facedown.
"Let's get 'em!" I heard one of my crew cry out with a ready cutlass
"Cut their throats, leave their flesh for the sharks!" cried out another,
One area my crew do not lack in is fighting spirit. Her crew boarded the Marine vessel with the clash of swords and Marines skewered with pikes or our enemies being hacked to pieces with boarding axes. It was carnage. When the smoke of gunpowder cleared, the Marines were all slain by gun and blade. Brave men. They put up an admirable resistance.
We went down to the hold of the ship. This merchant vessel was carrying medical supplies to a Marine base on the Grand Line. There was medicine, bandages, anti-septic, crutches and even false limbs and arms for the wounded. Our nurses aboard tended to the wounded. The smell and sight of burnt flesh is sickening, but part of carnage of battle.
It warms me to see the smiles on their faces when they receive treatment for their wounds. I helped a crew member whom lost the lower half of her right leg to a swivel gun. With bloody bandages, I stopped the wound from bleeding out amid her screams of pain and a few nurses holding her down. I managed to strap the false limb to the stump.
"It may take time, but rest now and we will try and learn to walk on it," she said to the wounded she-wolf, the dead were wrapped in white cloth and given burials at sea. Their bodies were placed on wooden planks with a funeral pyre for each one. The bodies were then set on fire, and cast out to sea. A most fitting way to be escorted to the afterlife.
The was looted of it's supplies from gunpowder and ammunition to cannon shot, rope, sails, and even the deceased captain's chest of his earnings. A shot from a swivel gun was aimed below the water into the ship's hull to scuttle her. The ship is another casualty of a She-Wolf attack. The decks were swabbed of any blood to be washed into the ocean.
"The Marines will send more after us," I said watching the merchant ship sink,
"It is inevitable, but it is a pirate's life, no?" replied Belladonna with a cute smirk,
I smiled and nodded lightly, "Our crew are in need a doctor...that is a most dire need," I helped my crew by given them water, helping them move around, and giving them words of encouragement. That night they feasted and rested under the light of the moon and the starry skies. There is nothing more beautiful than an evening filled with stars.
The next morning brought a sunny new day, my wounded crew were trying to walk on their own with new limbs. Some were having success, and others needed my help or Belladonna's. Our crew came from all walks of life, and have something to bring to the crew. These ladies were once shopkeepers, mercenaries, and even coopers of all trades.
Off in the distance and using the periscope at my belt, I saw a ship. I recognized the colors on the mid mast, "The Blue Dragon," I said to myself, I know of one of them that can help us. I saw that our colors were still hoisted from our engagement, "Pull down the colors, on deck lassies, full speed ahead, we have a favorable wind," I ordered to the crew,
"Belladonna, shoot off a flare, hopefully they see it," I ordered to my first mate, Belladonna raced into the quarters at the aft of the ship, and found the flare gun while I was at the helm of the ship. Belladonna shot off a flare up and down wind. Hopefully their crew spotted the flare. Fate seemed to be kind as the ship was approaching her broadsides.