The ship sailed slowly through the stormy weather, which was throwing the large vehicle left and right. Its crew stood on the deck, soaked and chilled to the bone. Their wet clothes clamped on their skin like whet leaves on window. The weather matched their mood, bad and troubled. The morale hung low and their spirit was broken.
"How long until we make port?" Stoick asked with a stoic expression, standing on the bridge of the ship.
"Well I'd love to grab the charts for you." Gobber began, standing at the helm. "But I do believe that the weather will damage them a little bit."
"What does your gut say?" Stoick asked, his eyes not leaving the dark clouds in front of the ship.
"Things you don't want to hear right now." Gobber said softly. "I think we'll see the town soon."
"Good." Stoick said calmly.
But a faint sound shook the crew from their cloud of sadness. The rain softened a bit, allowing them to hear it better the next time. It was a soft explosion.
"What is that?" Snotlout asked worriedly as the sound repeated itself, sometimes a bit louder, sometimes a bit softer, but overall growing in clearness.
"It's flak." Aster said as he returned from below deck. "And it's heavy."
"What's your guess?" Gobber yelled from the helm. "Diameter?"
"Probably 120." Aster said as he listened to the soft explosions in the distance. "Matches what we have at Berk."
"It's probably Berk's defences." Gobber said to Stoick, who now carried a grave expression. "But why are they firing?"
Stoick listened softly, the heavy explosions now being joined by soft screeches and other gunfire. "Dragons." He softly said before raising his voice to his full potential. "Dragons!" He yelled, informing the crew of the predicament.
He turned to Gobber, who had immediately raised the throttle of the large ship, pushing the engines to their limits. "Can we help with our arsenal?" He asked.
Gobber shook his head. "The missiles have a big arc, so we can't fire across Berk without risking those landing hits on the town. Our best bet is personal weaponry."
"We could fire along the cliffs." Aster said. "Their loud whistle might scare a few."
The ship broke through the clouds, Berk now visible to them. It was a grim sight to see. Part of the town was on fire, part was burned out, and another part was still under siege. The heavy flak towers did their best to thin the large herd of dragons that flew through the town, and a few emergency barrage balloons were being put up in the sky.
"Looks like the battle has just started." Stoick said as he looked at his town. "Let's get down there."
"Aster, Snot and the twins, I want you on those missiles, now." Gobber yelled loudly. "Don't bother to reload, we won't be needing more."
The teens quickly dispersed, heading downstairs to the gun deck. The twins took one side of the ship while Aster and Snotlout took the other. They pressed the triggers on the Rocker launchers. Firing a constant stream of small, unguided missiles out. The primitive system wasn't the most reliable one, so a few of the missiles jammed, as well as some of them falling down after a few meters. But the ones that did function properly screeched loudly as they left the ship. They flew through the air with relative slow speed, arcing towards the sea.
"That did absolutely nothing." Gobber muttered as he saw the missiles dying out and falling to the sea. The dragons remained focussed on the town and its supplies.
"Dock her and let's get off." Stoick ordered. "We need to get in the fight."
Gobber did as ordered, steering the large ship into the designated dock. The dock masters were too busy to tie her down, so they had to toss the large ropes themselves. The choice was made to only tie two of them, since one would be to unsecure and more would take too much time. The plank was dropped and they quickly got off the ship, there they found Mulch.
"Stoick, you've returned." He said glad. "What do you want us to do?"
"Fill me in with what's going on." Stoick ordered.
"Well, the dragons came out of nowhere, so we weren't prepared." Mulch began. "Our defence is uncoordinated and most people are just doing things. We managed to get some barrage balloons up, but the dragons destroyed the hot air pumps." He explained as he pointed at the ruined building further up the town. "We are filling the last ones with Hydrogen"
"What are you doing?!" Gobber asked from behind Stoick, hearing a fatal mistake.
"We filled them with" Mulch began, but was cut off when one of the Barrage balloons exploded in a large fiery cloud. "Hydrogen"
"They must stop immediately." Stoick ordered, he looked to his left. "Snotlout, you go tell them."
Snotlout quickly hurried off, hoping to prevent a disaster.
Stoick looked at his half destroyed town. "Tell the gunners to concentrate their fire above the part of the town that isn't destroyed." He ordered. "Twins and Fish, you go tell them."
The group headed off, each of them going a separate direction, heading for the flak towers.
"What do you want me to do?" Aster asked, his rifle on his back.
"Head to the armoury with Gobber." Stoick said. "We can't have one of those fire lizards get in there."
"Aye." He said as he ran off towards the fortified armoury with the old mechanic.
The defence was slowly beginning to shape up. The gunners on the flak towers had adjusted their aim to the area above the intact part of the village, hoping to minimalize more damage. The firemen were hard at work to keep the fire at bay, preventing it from spreading further. Since even though it rained, the flames scorched the building with extreme results. The barrage balloons were being filled with steam and smoke, and more than a few dragon flew into the metal lines that hung from them.
Gobber and Aster were almost at the armoury, ready to defend it from any dragons looking for food or things to steal or destroy. The large steel doors were still shut tight, which meant that the contents were still safe. It would be dangerous if a dragon got in, they would then either have to kill the beast before it could set off any ammunition, or they would have to close the large blast doors and hope the building would contain the explosion. But there was no telling if it would or not.
Each of them found a place besides the door, Gobber on the left, and Aster on the right. Gobber hid in a small building, his revolver at the ready for any trouble. Aster sat crouched behind a few sandbags that some always lay there, just in case.
"We could use something heavier." Aster yelled from the other side of the large doors. "We won't do much against a big one."
"I don't know what you're hinting at lad." Gobber began. "But these doors are not opening."
"Fine." Aster yelled as he peered across the iron sights of his rifle. A Monstrous Nightmare landed in the street, but he was quickly scared off by a few warning shots from Gobber.
"Then what do you advise we use?" Aster asked calmly. "I don't see a cleverly placed Gatling gun somewhere."
"Or a small flak." Gobber added as he searched through the guard post for anything to use. Only finding a broken watch and some rusty nails.
They looked at each other, although they had both realised that dragons weren't always dangerous, they knew that they had to make their shots count if they got too close.
The Nightmare landed in the street again, this time joined by a Nadder and a Zippleback.
"We got company." Aster said as he fired a shot. The bullet missing the left head of the Zippleback by a little bit.
"Oh, really?" Gobber asked sarcastically as he fired his revolver out of the window of the guard post. "I hadn't noticed."
The Bullets flew past the Zippleback, scaring him away. The Nightmare meanwhile fired a blast of fire at Gobber's small building, forcing his to jump out of it to not be burned alive. He fired some more shots at the Monstrous Nightmare, one hitting him in the wing, scaring him off.
"One more." Aster said as he looked through the sights of the rifle, aiming at the head of the blue Nadder. He squeezed the trigger gently, the bullet flying through the air. Sadly though, Aster hadn't accounted for the spike that the Nadder had growing from her nose, and thus the bullet ricocheted of the spike and off through a window.
To say that the dragon was irritated was an understatement. The Nadder charged at Aster, his large claws shaking the ground. It had spread its wings, hoping to look more intimidating. Aster, taken aback by the sudden outburst of the dragon quickly stood up, pulling back the bolt of his rifle.
"Come on, come on." He muttered as he pressed a new bullet in the open cylinder, sliding the bolt back to chamber the bullet. He raised the rifle and tried to fire, but the trigger didn't move a bit.
It was by far, the worst time for a weapon to jam, ever.
The Nadder was only a few meters away from him, and he was still charging at him with all his might. Aster dropped the weapon, slowly backing up until he felt his back touch the cold steel of the blast doors.
Gobber aimed his gun at the Nadder, but as the hammer fell he realised that he had forgot to count his shots, this would be shot seven. And the Nadder was now almost by Aster.
Aster closed his eyes, waiting for the feeling of magnesium fire against his skin, or teeth on his upper torso, but they didn't come. Its hot breath was felt by Aster, smelling of a mixture of magnesium and fish, a strange combination. He slowly opened an eye, staring into the large open yellow eye of the Deadly Nadder. The Nadder was staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and anger. Mainly anger.
Aster could also see a small chip missing from the Nadder's Spike, probably the place where his bullet ricocheted.
AN:
A bit shorter and very hastily written. I wanted to get a chapter out since it has been something like seven weeks since I have updated this story. The reason. I had no idea how to continue. I had written a full chapter but I didn't like where it was going, since it would be too out of the blue and too quick. I am hoping to finish it soon since I am pretty much out of inspiration for the story. But I do want to finish it properly. I don't want to rush the ending, but I do hope to be done in three to four chapters.
This is where you guys come in, (I hope)
If you have a good idea for how the story can end, PM me. I have an idea where I want to go, but I haven't worked it out fully. Don't put your ideas in the reviews since it will spoil it for the rest (We don't want that do we? :P).
So, if you feel like helping we finish the story, be my guest, or not, since you can't PM me as a guest. . . .
Anyway, I'm terribly sorry for the long wait, and I hope to keep to schedule now.
As for another part: Once I do finish this story, which hopefully won't take much longer than three to four weeks. I plan on beginning a new one, if my schoolwork allows me to. Those who have been with my writing for a while will know what is to come. A new Poll. Again, you can vote for one of the ideas. Each idea consists of a little teaser and an explanation of the story. The teasers won't have the best format, that's because fanfiction won't allow enters in their polls. Anyway, choose wisely and choose carefully. Do realise that I won't start any of the new works until I feel like I have the time to properly sustain uploading and I have finished this story.
Thanks for everyone who reviewed, it motivates me a lot! If you have questions, hints, or something else to say, then ask/hint/say away.
Hehe, that rhymed.
Again, sorry for the long wait.
R4y