Chapter Four- In The Clear
Vyse raised his blades and smirked. "Today's the day you're gonna get it once and for all, Aika." The weapon he held was not his traditional main pirate cutlass, but one of the pieces of salvage recovered by a team of his crew. The weapon was called the Dream Cutlass, and looked like no blade he had ever seen before. It was feather-light, but when it struck an object with force it unleashed powerful energy of a kind that nobody could identify. As the only one who wielded the heavy cutlass-blade type swords aboard the ship and as the captain, he naturally got to test out the Dream Cutlass. Aika, always up for combat, was happy to oblige him.
"Why don't you go fuck yourself," She wittily replied, twirling her boomerang and crouching. They faced off against each other in the large, square room, with several members of the crew looking on, including Doc (just in case.) Marco was chanting the ubiquitous request for 'fight, fight, fight', while Maria hid behind him, timidly hoping nobody was injured.
"Why should I do that when you'll do that for me?" Vyse charged at her with speed, slicing upwards and nearly beheading her. She knelt, bringing the boomerang up and knocking the broad side of the crystal weapon onto his side with a thump. He tumbled backwards, but regained his footing. "C'mon, Aika, hit me better than that."
"You're welcome." She knelt again, closing her eyes. "Moons! Give Me Strength!" Bolts of electricity appeared in her closed fist, encircling an orb of power that crew each moment as the Electres spell charged up. Vyse knew better than to let her get the spell off, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a grenade. He primed it by pulling out the small metal pin and then threw it at her, arcing through the air and clattering to a halt at her toes.
The explosion took a chunk out of the soft mat laid out under the combatants' feet, but Aika, with her own speed, was long gone and took to damage. Taking advantage of the smoke concealment, she let fly her boomerang right for him. Vyse crossed his blades in front of him, preparing a Counterstrike and feeling the Dream Cutlasses charge with energy. When the weapon smacked into the blades, it was repelled with equal force, and Aika barely caught it without breaking her arm. Using the momentum from the Counterstrike, he sent a wind strike her way, which she narrowly avoided.
Vyse was so caught up in his own cleverness that he barely noticed her own smirk. Curious, as she only ever looked so pleased in combat when he was about to fall into a trap, he looked around, circumspect as the grenade's smoke wafted around him. He realized that the smoke was slightly discolored, and suddenly he bent over, coughing.
"Noxi," Aika chuckled. "Poisonous line of Green Spells I've been practicing on monsters for a while. You should have looked closer, Vyse. Of course, this gas will just paralyze you for a few moments, but theoretically I could really tear your ass up."
"Aika wins," David announced. "Moons Alive, Vyse. What is that, five in a row? You'd think that since you're way stronger you'd at least manage not to get beat every time."
"She's a lot smarter," Belle giggled. "She always uses traps and magic, while Vyse usually just uses items and his own two hands." The gunner nodded sagely. "It isn't all about firepower. That's why I'm better with the Delphinus' secondaries, in the long run they're the real punishers." Vyse soon recovered, getting back up to his feet with Aika's help and looking very discontented. She tried to look innocent, and summarily failed horribly to do so.
"'It isn't all about firepower'?!" Khazim at first had been a little distanced from his fellow battery commander, due to the fact that she was a little girl and very busty, but he had slowly warmed to her, treating her and her girls like guy friends, after seeing her skill and determination. "Listen to you, Belle! The mains get the job done, and get it done fast! Aika never fights fair, that's why the Cap'n hasn't won... yet. You just wait!"
"Yeah, we'll wait for that." Belle winked, giggling again.
Maria went up to Vyse, offering him a Sacri crystal before quickly retreating back away from him. She was always shy around people, but seemingly twice as much around Vyse, who became nearly a big brother to her. Doc encouraged it, as he did Marco's friendship, as ways for her to slowly easy back into normal socialization.
The walls rattled harshly as usual, but everyone soon detected a decrease in the rumbling and groaning. "Already?" Vyse wondered aloud, walking over to the talking-tube. "Bridge, what you got on the radar?"
"We're drawing near another pocket," Lawrence replied quietly.
"Hrmph, we've only been underway about a day," Marco said. "Not that I'm complaining. I get some fresh air again..." As a Valuan, born and raised in the most polluted place in the entire world, he knew the true value of such air.
"... ETA five minutes," The helmsman finished, closing off the tube again on his end and finishing communications. Vyse grinned, nodding to everyone, who rushed off for their stations. Fina, who had remained silently watching, joined David, Aika, Vyse and Marco as they all ascended a flight of stairs towards the warship's bridge.
"Hey Fina, would you like to spar with us next time?" Vyse offered. "I really wasn't going to say anything... but even with Cupil, it's dangerous if you aren't skilled enough in personal combat."
Fina paused. "... Very well, Vyse. I'll train more often, if you think that's what's best." She smiled gently at him. "I'm still trying to get used to the whole concept of getting into someone's face and... 'beating the stuffing out of them' ... it's so... strange for me."
Aika giggled. "I never envisioned you the brawling type, Fina." The Silvite reddened slightly, even though she internally agreed with the redhead's assessment.
They reached the command deck, David stepping forward in the dim lighting. "We've been at this for about eight days now, although day and night don't have any meaning here... I wonder, truly, how big the Dark Rift is?"
"It's probably smaller than we think," Pinata said next to Lawrence. "The winds keep pushing us back, meaning we're literally crawling along. I estimate we've only traveled about the same distance it was from Pirate Island to Nasr, but it's just taking so much longer because of the adverse conditions."
Around them, the winds tapered off, as usual, and soon the metal bulkheads that surrounded them no longer emitted the ominous groaning from the air pressure. They emerged into a membrane of shielding winds, passing totally through and into the miraculous bubble of calm. After a few moments in open, free sky, Lawrence once again began to retract the lockdown armor. The Delphinus' second shell slid open, but no light came through.
Outside the open windows, it was a pitch-blackness that revealed nothing ahead of the ship's long metallic prow. Vyse squinted into it, his magnified skyglass revealing nothing. "... Why's it so dark here, David? The other bubbles had some light filtering into them..." The Delphinus flew ahead, totally blind to anything that might be approaching. In such a foreign area, this made the entire crew slightly nervous.
Lawrence consulted the radar display while David pondered. "It could be that we're closer to the center of the Rift. If this is the eye of the thickest storm in history, then obviously the sun won't be shining too bright... or maybe it's a magical effect. Without further data, we have no way of knowing. What's the radar say?"
"This whole bubble is empty," The pilot announced. "No pings between here and the wind-walls... no land, or anything at all. That isn't the weirdest part... look at this." Five apertures appeared distant from each other along the walls of the calm pocket and above and below it, making huge vortexes leading to half a dozen different channels of reduced winds.
"Son of a Huskra," Vyse groaned. "Besides the one we came in, how do we choose which way to go? I mean, none of them are straight ahead, the obvious choice..." His mental deliberation was interrupted as the entire ship jolted and a banging sound clattered through his bones. Wincing, he looked around, and saw that the nose of the airship was scraping hard against something. "Report!"
"We hit something," Lawrence said, hitting the reverse thrust and feeling the propellers change the direction of their rotation, quickly pulling them away from the large and mysterious object. "Something hard."
"I thought the radar didn't show anything," Aika said.
"It didn't," The mercenary replied calmly. "It still doesn't."
"Probably a glitch or a malfunction," David sighed. "Or an effect of the Rift. Well, Captain Vyse? What should we do?" They were almost in the center of the calm bubble, floating, suspended in midair. It really sucks that all of the running lights on the ship were blown out, this is what they were made for!
"I'm curious about what we hit," Vyse said. "It doesn't appear on radars... hold the ship here, I'm going to take a lifeboat out and check it out closer. Aika, Fina, c'mon, your magic can help give us some light. David, contact us at the first sign of trouble."
"That's what I was about to say," The Vice Captain smirked. "We'll hold the fort. Maybe we just made a major discovery, who knows." The three teenagers made their way down to the hangar, opening the doors into the pitch-black silence of the calm air. It was still eerie for them not to hear the malignant rush of air and the groaning of the deck under them as nature did it's best to rip them apart.
Climbing aboard the metal lifeboat, Vyse turned to the engine and started it up. The ship began to raise itself off of it's resting place on a set of magnetic rails, floating gently towards the open maw of the bay doors. The propeller in the back rushed and hummed, and they began to move faster, coming out of the ship and turning around. He was glad to be back at the wheel of a ship, even if it was a very temporary journey. And even if I can't see a damn thing.
"Visibility is worse than when we fought Rhaknam," Aika complained. "Let's see if I can't lighten things up a bit with some Yellow Magic..."
"Wait, Aika, I can handle this," The timid blonde behind her said, even as she knelt onto the cold metal deck of the skiff. "Moons... Bathe Us In Your Light..." She clasped her hands together, prayed with all of her will that she might be heard above the winds of their gigantic prison. Both of the teenagers watched in awe as an ambient glow above them began to intensify. The power of the Silver Moon reached even this distant part of the world, and a beam of silver energy shot down towards Arcadia, filling the entire calm bubble with intensifying light.
Vyse was stunned speechless as, through willpower alone, Fina literally made the heavens into her torch, casting light into places it had not been seen for eons. The gigantic cloud swirls above them receded and broke apart to admit the shining orb of the Silver Moon to smile down upon then.
A dozen things all at once struck both of the observers. First, they were in an enormous reef of crystal formations, all of the stones jet-black and seeming to absorb the light as it surrounded them, and resonate with the glow. It was the opposite of the empty bubble claimed by the Delphinus' radar system. There was no land, but the crystals had more area than the islands he had previously seen, and held a mysterious quality to them that drew his eye.
"Vyse! ... Look up!" Aika pointed towards the sky. Next to the unnatural appearance of the Silver Moon, a second orb stood above them, it's completely black glow throwing tendrils of darkness that tangled into the light and fought it for supremacy over them. "It's... it's a Black Moon!"
"A... seventh moon..." Vyse blanched. This was almost too much for even him to take in at once. He looked over to Fina. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," She assured him, although her gentle voice sounded slightly strained by the no doubt enormous exertions she put out to keep the Silver Moon above their heads. "Nobody has ever... seen a Black Moon before... the Elders thought it was just a rumor..."
"A lot of rumors have some base in truth," Vyse turned back to the wheel and looked around. "Why does this crystal absorb light like that? It's the blackest thing I've ever seen."
"Who knows," Aika said. "We should cut off a piece and take it with us to get someone who knows stuff to study it. Plus something like this could be worth big bucks to a collector who wants a fancy stone in their jewelry..." The familiar gold-hungry expression took dominion of her features and Vyse sighed, realizing she was quickly slipping into her own blissful world of riches and grandeur.
Vyse squinted at the black crystal. It looked solid, but he pulled out one of his cutlasses, twirling the dream blade and focusing will into it for a Cutlass Fury attack which would hopefully crack it's flawless surface. The lifeboat saddled gently up to the central crystal, getting close enough to gently bump against it before the teenager began to furiously pound it with his sword. The small boat rocked with the force of the blasts as explosions bloomed before his eyes.
The black crystal absorbed and reflected all of the energy, sending a wave of opposing force at him that knocked him onto his back with a deafening boom. "What the hell?!" He demanded, quickly standing back up as Aika stared at the mysterious object. It's surface wasn't even tarnished by the force of his blades or willpower strikes, having rendered the attack completely useless.
"Looks like it's some kinda magic," Aika sighed. "I couldn't tell you what kind, though... I don't think we're going to be able to scratch this thing."
"Damn," The teenage pirate cursed. "... Well, I suppose we can't take any with us, then. Let's get back to the ship, we're just wasting fuel." Turning away from the miraculous discovery, the pilot spared a glance skyward before setting off to the nearby waiting mothership. The Delphinus' hangar door opened up, admitting their skiff into it and closing behind them even as they set down on the deck.
David was waiting for them, awestruck as they were. "A Black Moon! This is incredible stuff, Vyse! We just discovered the legendary seventh moon in the sky..." His hidden eyes flickered over to the spent Silvite. "Fina, you look beaten. I can't blame you after the light show. That was something else, you've gotten truly powerful."
Vyse smirked. "What I said about fighting might be true, but in Magic and the Moons nothing can top Fina. She's awesome." Aika agreed silently with this assessment.
Fina blushed under the weight of the praise, looking away and struggling to get back to her feet. "It wasn't that much, really... all Silvites can call upon their moon in times of need, I'm much weaker than the Elders or Rami-" She cut herself off before she could complete the name of the commander that had laid waste to Nasrad and personally taken her as a Valuan hostage.
"Any practical reason for sticking around here?" Vyse wondered, leaping down to the Vice Captain and gracefully ignoring the slip about their enemy.
"Not a one. No salvage, nothing much to see now that the Lunar Light is receding..." David nodded. "We can continue underway now. Lawrence is confident he can reach any of the apertures, now that we've sight-mapped them roughly. All we need is a course. Remember, we have a lot of options." Likely only one that will keep us moving forward... if any of them do.
"Let's get up to the bridge, then," Vyse said, leading the group into the hallway.
0-0
By now it was almost a familiar routine, but that hadn't made the three days of travel any less hard on the pirate crew. Despite this difficulty, Piastol was coming along well, taking more than a cursory look at Green Magic and taking lessons from Fina, and still trying to atone for her sins. Robinson proved to be an able sailor, and had gotten his monstrous hair trimmed back to sane levels, although he retained a mop of black tied back in a simple, efficient ponytail, and donned a gray sailors' outfit. Vyse retained his high spirits, the familiar almost arrogant total confidence enlightening his face to all observers.
The light seemed to steadily increase as they flew over the ominously barren landmasses. Not a single shipwreck of piece of man-made debris remained on the mossy structures, which David commented on. "It's almost like something swept em off or ate the hulks... I have a bad feeling about this." Despite his bad feeling, most of the crew were out on the deck enjoying the fresher air and degrees of natural light shining down upon them.
Lawrence looked at the aperture directly in front of them, and frowned. "Monster," He declared, his trademark terseness completely washing over the others, who also turned to examine the portal. Vyse and David did a double-take at the creature occupying a good part of the space in the swirling wind formation.
The creature looked like a gigantic eel, bigger and longer than the ship itself, with a ruddy yellow flexible skin. It's head was taller than it was long, and tapered off into purple fin-gills connecting it to the long tail-like main body. The head itself was a bright orange, or what David decided was it's head as it swayed about in midair.
"Anguila," Fina gasped. "It was a species of enormous flying eels that possessed incredibly potent neurotoxins, but according to the Shrine's records, the species died out ages ago."
"Hm... lots of surprises, this Rift," David smirked. "Is it hostile? Will it let us past?"
"Unlikely. Anguila were fiercely territorial, and might see us as either a potential mate, food source, or competitor for it's region." Fina frowned. None of those options sounded very appealing, considering it's enormous side. It continued to writhe about in the dark winds, partially concealed most of the time and observing the slowly approaching airship.
"So it's either going to kill us, eat us or hump us," Vyse sighed. "Looks like it's time for a fight." He clicked onto the talking-tube. "Khazim, Belle, it's time for some action." The captain smirked at the energetic cheers of the gunners and their crews. "The lockdown on the cannon batteries should have lifted with the rest of the ship... get all our weapons ready to rock. Everyone else, man your battlestations! David, strategy?"
"It's using the vortex for cover," The Vice Captain observed. "We don't know what the Anguila can do, but I think we should take a risk and get closer so we can increase our own accuracy. I'll power up the moonstone cannon, too."
Enrique groaned from behind them. "Hm... I'm feeling well enough to man the torpedo sets, if I may. Vyse, I recommend we keep our distance from the creature. We need to conserve hull armor as much as possible for the rest of our journey."
Vyse sighed. "Alright, let's get closer. This place is so dark our accuracy is bad enough as it is. The ship can take it, especially if all it's gonna do is ink us. That might hurt people, like Robinson, but steel's a different story." In response to his order, the Delphinus revved up it's engines, pushing forward through the sky and past the tangling and deformed landmasses.
The Anguila let loose an angry bellow as the slightly smaller Valuan battleship edged closer, and twirled around in the vortex to face it down. Suddenly and without warning, it withdrew fully into the inky black depths of the windy aperture. The ship's turrets tracked over and all aimed for the large portal. "Khazim, give him a round," Vyse ordered, and felt the reassuring rattle of the deck as the ship's main battery loosed a volley of explosive shells.
Screaming through the air, they vanished into the whipping air currents, and dimly a set of flashes filtered through the swirling vortex. "Hm..." David squinted. "I can't tell if it had any effect, Vyse..." A moment later he got his answer, as the eel reappeared again, only it's head bobbing out of it's cover and looking untouched. "Fuck."
"I don't think we're going to be able to hit it when it has that wind cover," Aika sighed. "Let's try some torpedoes-" She was interrupted as it's tail suddenly appeared out of the vortex and opened up, strongly reminding Vyse of the Moonstone Cannon. "Here comes it's reply, guys!" Waves of energy appeared around it's body, and an orb of power charged up around before it, and it discharged a large globule of liquid that shot out at them so quickly they had no time to evade.
The material appeared to be some kind of biochemical reactant, which meant that upon contact with the cold metal ship it exploded and shoved them back, chewing away at the battered prow of the weathered airship. The engines struggled back even as the crew was shaken up, but David quickly recovered. "That's some kinda toxin! Moons, a few hits like that and the ship's not going to hold it!"
"Orders?" Lawrence calmly asked.
"Hold our position," Stubbornly barked the teenager. "Torpedoes, secondaries, return fire now!" The ship rattled and rumbled under their feet as Belle's batteries of cannon coils sent streams of explosives into the concealed enemy, sparking a set of lights walking across the swirling wind. The torpedoes shot straight upwards, piercing the top of the calm bubble but moving with such speed at the torrential winds outside did little to affect their course.
The Anguila was again untouched by the cannon fire, emerging after a few seconds and opening it's enormous mouth to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. "It's going to try and bite us," Marco yelled. "Heh, here come the torpedoes..."
The columns of fire that blossomed on the front of the gigantic eel were rather beautiful, illuminating with fiery flashes the vortex around it and making it cry out in pain. The torpedo impacts blasted into the flesh and burned it, shooting waves of agony into the Anguila. Vyse smirked. "Alright, let's follow up with our Super Cannon. David, charge up to fire!" The Vice Captain worked the controls, and the prow of the Delphinus bloomed outwards to reveal the pristine black barrel of the deadly superweapon.
"This guy wasn't so tough," Aika scoffed, watching the creature become enraged and turn towards them. "It's still gonna lunge at us? Wow." Opening it's toothy maw, it rushed forward at an amazingly brisk speed, which made her slightly concerned about the progress of the Moonstone Cannon's charge.
"Here's something for it to suck on," David growled. "One hundred percent power, Captain!"
"Good! Moonstone Cannon, fire!" The ship was shoved back, but this time it was due to the incredible recoil of their secret weapon. A beam of purple energy shot forth from the buckling metal prow, neatly lancing into the inviting throat of the Anguila and burning a hole clear through it's tail in the other end. It twirled in the air before falling with a last guttural roar, and Vyse watched it vanish quickly below the first layers of the calm bubble's 'floor'. "Yeah! We beat it!" The crew began to cheer for their victory.
Moments later, a globule of poisonous explosive rushed up through the air, hitting the bottom armor of the ship without any warning or mercy. Shoving them forward and hitting the crew inside against the advancing deck, it spat through the vulnerable section of defensive plating. The damage was severe enough where it burned a hole clear into the ship, completely breaching the hull. "Hull breach," David cried as alarms began to sound. "Damage reports coming in... the main coils of the Moonstone Cannon have been hit! The S. Cannon is out of commission!"
"Moons Alive," Pinata said in surprise, picking himself off of the floor gingerly. "Or, more accurately, Anguila alive!" Shooting up in the air, the eel barely missed them, shoving the airship aside as it rocketed forward and uncurled, roaring at them from a position above and directly in front of the Delphinus.
"It survived our most powerful gun," Enrique glared at the looming Dark Rift monster that flashed it's teeth once again at his metal opponent. "Vyse! What are we going to do?!"
"Everyone, hang on! Lawrence, angle us up and begin to climb. All batteries, that thing is out into the open- fire at will!" The ground tilted backwards, putting paid to all of the crew to find some solid footing and a handhold on a wall or control surface. The real difficulties began when the batteries of cannons began to fire, sending volleys of main and secondary shells whistling through the air in enormous buckshot and single-shot patterns.
The Anguila was so thin that many of the shells streaked off to either side of it, barely glancing it enough to send them off-course before they exploded, or was simply too quick as it whipped around through the air. "It's evasion is impressive," Aika gasped. "Vyse, we need a plan!"
"Magic Cannons," Vyse ordered. "Double-quick! Load Driln shells into the secondaries and let 'er rip! If we can weaken the eel enough to slow it down, we can hit it with more torpedoes or force it back into the winds!"
Within moments, the cannon ammo had been swapped out and shells enchanted by mages of the Yellow Moon began to thunder outwards, exploding around the eel in patterns of electricity. Even with the best efforts of the gunners, the weaving enemy made tough prey indeed, and it circled the ship quicker than Lawrence could turn it, meaning the Anguila was only in their sights when it was in front of the front arc of the ship. With each pass, the eel drew slightly closer to the ship, which was not moving for fear of throwing off their aim further.
Khazim was swearing up a storm in Nasrian that made anyone who could understand the Red language blush, even the stoic Lawrence. When a shell finally landed, it writhed in pain as snowflakes of yellow light burst around it, filling it with weakening powers. "Yeah! That's more like it, men! Keep going!" With each hit, the eel slowed down a little, making the next hit a little more easy to land, and soon it wasn't going very quickly at all.
"Stuck in the mud?" Vyse smirked. "We're still perfect. Lawrence, let's get movi-" Before he could give the command, Anguila radically changed its failed tactics. It dove straight in from the side and bared its teeth for yet another shot at taking a bite from the steel warship. "At least he doesn't quit easy..."
Lawrence spun the wheel, feeling the ship respond to his command and smoothly sliding out of the way... mostly. One of the maneuvering wings in the back of the ship was ripped off with a horrible groaning sound and the Delphinus was knocked forward, but the eel was past them, chewing on the metal in it's mouth. "We lost a fin," He announced. "No other damage... turning to attack." The ship pivoted again, rotating around to face the writhing creature.
"We need to end this while the ship is still intact," David sighed. "Let's get in close and blast him with everything we have. Pyrulen shells." The incredibly potent Red Magic spell would imbibe a regular cannonball with extraordinary explosive powers, but a shell from the Delphinus' main cannon would have roughly the stopping power of a sky rift.
"Right. C'mon, Fina!" They had no enchantments for such a dangerous and powerful spell, so the two girls had to run down to the magazine and manually begin the spells. Aika led her out of the bridge and down a flight of stairs, running at full speed even as the Delphinus began to overtake the fleeing form of the Anguila. Khazim looked over as they entered the vast storage rooms which held the finely-crafted explosives shot from their cannons and grinned, pointing them towards the shells to be enchanted, each of which were about as large as they were.
"Moons, Give Me Strength," Fina implored, summoning forth all of her considerable magical power into the single Red spell. Lines of bloody-red energy crossed in a grid formation over the shell, which began to glow a dangerous orange-color that combined with Fina's spell and now held enough magical potential energy to wipe out a small island.
"Main cannons... get ready..." The enormous blocky turret swiveled into place, centering on the yellowish skin of the Anguila. "Take this, you bloody eel! Fire!" With thunder and smoke the deadly messenger made it's path across the sky and enveloped the entire monster in a sphere of pure fire.
For several terse seconds nobody moved, and then they saw the bombed-out husk of the Anguila once again sink, although this time it didn't move at all and parts of it's long body were simply evaporated. There was no question this time- the deadly monster was dead, and the cheers from the Blue Rogue crew began in earnest.
Vyse leaned over to the talking-tube. "Good work, everyone! The way is clear, as soon as we patch up that hole we can keep on movin'!"
The crew, morale soaring from their victory, went to work repairing the newest injuries inflicted on the worn and melted armor facets of their flagship. After an hour of welding and smelting, the ship was once again airtight, and everyone went inside for the lockdown. Within a minute the Delphinus was back underway inside the shifting air currents, and they continued on their journey towards the far-away lands basking in the light of the Blue Moon.
0-0
Each time they drew breath they were making history. No human being in the recorded history of any post-Rains civilization had ever done what they had done. Over the past two weeks, the crew had endured a variety of obstacles and challenges, suffered long periods of lightless claustrophobia and defeated an ancient monster, as well as the feared Angel of Death within the rippling folds of the Dark Rift.
As the shutters slid open for the last time in their journey, full and glorious light, absent for a seeming eternity from their lives, flooded back into the bridge. Vyse blinked several times, unused to the bright red-tinted open sky that stretched out before them. "... we did it."
"Yeah." David couldn't help the self-satisfied smirk that crossed his mysterious face. Each moment the airship slid further away from the nightmarish storm just behind them, and the skies got a little more blue and a little less red. Out on the deck every member of the crew but they and their pilot were celebrating their return to a world of openness and light.
Robinson was the one most struck out of everyone, never remembering a time when he had been out of the Rift. He stood by his wife's side, tightly holding her hand in his own weathered appendage and gazing out upon the sky. Such feelings welled up in him that defied description or control, and he began to tear-up, letting the gentle breezes wash across his newly shaved face.
Piastol looked over at Maria, and they exchanged a smile. Doc stood between the two girls, pondering the turbulent events of the past three weeks since he had joined Vyse's crew. Marco and Pinata were leaning over the railing while the gunnery crews and their commanders simply laid on the deck, basking in the open sunlight. Luke and Rodgers, up on the observation deck, huddled closer together under her jacket and smiled at the rising orb of the blazing sun. Even Pow was incredibly grateful to be out on the deck, yipping excitedly.
Looking up into the sky, Fina spotted a blue orb rising next to the sun and said, "The Blue Moon... we're entering Yafutoman airspace, Vyse. All we have to do is go due-north and we should soon see the Blue Lands."
Aika shook her head wistfully. "Lands under the Blue Moon... last month such a thing would have gotten you laughed at by me, possibly a slap on the face for some sense-knocking... but look at this. We've actually done it, Vyse. I just hope the people there don't try to eat us with their chop-stick things..."
Vyse smirked. "Insert bad joke about how you taste, here. Lawrence, you can take some time off, if you want. You've been spending a lot of time at the helm ever since we've begun the journey." Minus the time you got attacked by our new crew mate. I'll omit that part for now.
"It's what I'm paid for," The mercenary shook his shrouded head. "I'm not big on relaxation. I can do my job, Captain."
"Alright..." The teenager had a seat on the maps table in the center of the bridge and sighed. "I'm so glad we're out of there! I can't want to see these Yafutomans, and their ships... I hope we'll be greeted like gods, like at Ixa'taka! Heh."
The Delphinus, weathered, beaten, scorched, ripped, and shattered though it was, continued it's course north, still in the air and still with a crew full of rebels who aimed to save the world. About three hours after they emerged from the Dark Rift, the sky had turned completely into it's glorious blue hues and they easily forded a minor sky rift directly in their path. After the difficulty of the enormous black storm, the regular rifts seemed like trifling jokes to Vyse.
Within minutes of clearing the rift they sighted a long object ahead, which Vyse identified as a set of floating stone walls mounted on islands in a solid line, except for large holes and chunks blasted or dug out of the walls. "Amazing," He said. "The people of Yafutoma could build such a structure?" It looked like a minimalist interpretation of Valua's Grand Fortress.
"The more I see, the more I want to see," Aika said, giggling. "I wonder where they are, though... we should be seeing some ships about now... hey, dead ahead!" Three ships had appeared from behind the walls and islands. They looked paper-thin, covered in scales and made of wood with heavily folded papyrus sails and plywood maneuvering fins. So strange was their appearance that the crew was taken with them enough to only notice the black cannons jutting out from their broadsides as a round of explosions shoved them sideways.
Everyone gasped, hanging on as the ship rattled from more explosive impacts to either side of the damaged hull. "Damn," David cursed. "They just came outa nowhere and started shelling us, Vyse! Orders?"
"I guess we have to return fire," The teenager shrugged. "I hate that this is our first contact, but we need to act in self-defense. All hands, battlestations!" The Yafutoman ships continued their fire, but Lawrence began a skillful set of evasive actions that made the lump of metal move in ways it was never believed possible. "They don't look very solid... Belle, give them a round from the secondary cannons!"
Complying with his directive, the sets of turrets mounted over the misshapen airship swiveled around and locked onto the approaching figures of the foreign attackers. A moment later the groaning frame of steel rattled from the force of a dozen cannons spitting fire. The streams of small shells rocketed forth into the sky in long expanding lines that crisscrossed the sky.
One of the Yafutoman warships took a direct hit astern, being shoved backwards as it's light armor burned away in fire. Smoke belched forth from the impact crater and several of it's cannons were melted or wrecked. In response, they and the two other ships began to rise, high into the sky and above the tracking range of the Delphinus' guns.
"Yafutomans harness the power of the Blue Moonstones, which control wind and water," Fina declared, hanging on to a control surface as cannonballs burst around them in continuing volleys, "So their ships can go much higher and quicker than yours!"
"Lost," Belle yelled into the talking tube over the clatter of the machinery behind her loading and clearing the cannon coils.
"In the ship's damaged condition, I don't think it would be wise to try and climb that high," Lawrence advised. "Several propellers are out of commission, and if we stall, I'm not sure I can recover us in time to continue." They passed almost directly below the Yafutoman ships, turning around in a circle as the three enemies pivoted and prepared to continue raining fire at the pirate ship.
"If our guns can't hit them, at least our torpedoes can get the job done! Enrique!" Pillars of fire bloomed out from the top of the ship's long and bent metal prow. Apparently their enemy had never seen torpedo-type weaponry before, because they assumed the fire was a direct-line weapon and took no evasive action, firing at their back as the Delphinus retreated.
Their ignorance exacted a severe toll. The center Yafutoman vessel exploded, ripped apart by twin hits from the plunging explosive charges. Splintered wood and metal scales crowded the sky as debris rained from the crumbling ship and fire consumed it's folded paper sails. Breaking apart into several pieces, the ship sank in the clear blue skies towards Deep Sky. Several lifeboats quickly lifted off and floated away from the doomed hulk.
Snapping about again and preparing to head in for another pass, the crew were surprised to find the two surviving boats begin a retreat, slipping lower until they had vanished under the clouds. This mastery of altitude astounded them just as much as how they had evaded their cannons by climbing so high, and they watched until the last sails dissipated. Enrique allowed himself a victorious smile before a fourth, radically different airship appeared and began a beeline for them. "Vyse! What appears to be the enemy's flagship is coming in!"
It looked like two boats joined at the side, thick wooden armor protecting it's heavy batteries of cannons sticking out both sides and their long folded sails billowing in the wind. The carved figures of dragons were put on the prow, reminding Vyse of Black Pirate vessels that did the same thing, mostly to inspire fear at their approach.
Their tactics were much more familiar to David, who squinted. "Vyse, they're coming in at full rudder... they're planning a boarding action! We should get combat-ready crewmen out on the deck to repel their troops!"
"Agreed. David, stay here with the kids and Lawrence and hold our position for now. Enrique, Aika, Fina, let's get moving!" He leaned over to the talking-tube. "Piastol, Luke, Rodgers, to the deck! We have company." He led his group down the hallway, meeting the former bounty hunter and Blue Storm teenagers on the way and charging out onto the deck. Everyone drew their weapons and looked around, but neither the ship nor any soldiers were in sight.
Piastol suddenly looked up at the crest of the Delphinus' control tower above them, to the shattered main running light next to the crow's nest, and pointed. "Captain."
"Westerners..." The deep voice was infused with an accent unfamiliar to any of them, but it was definitely some form of Valuan. It belonged to a pair of nearly identical men crouching with astounding balance to either side of the broken light fixture. Each one had a yellowish skin and slanted, determined eyes along with a short and long ponytail but otherwise bald head. One wore a dark blue top armor while the other was adorned in a red top to match his flared red pants. Neither were armed.
"... We've been waiting for you," The other finished for him perfectly, as if they were psychically linked. Aika briefly wondered about what other kinds of natural powers the foreign race of Yafutoma held.
"Who are you?!" Vyse demanded. "And why have you attacked us?:
"I am Jao," The one in red stated, calmly examining each of the pirate crew that was rushed out to fight them.
"I am Mao," The blue-adorned twin said. "It is our mission..."
"... To collect 1000 swords." The two of them leapt down, in perfect synchronization and landed between them and the deck's main hatch in an unarmed fighting stance that was as perfectly strange to them as was everything about the men. "So, you must pick one, of two choices..."
"... Surrender, and we take your weapons, or we kill you, and take your weapons." Mao raised his bare fists and allowed a supremely confident smirk to cross his chiseled face.
"It is up to you..."
"... To decide your fate," They stated calmly. Vyse's hand went to the hilt of his new Dream Cutlass as he opened his mouth to give them an answer. So much for being in the clear.