CHAPTER 33: Wing suit construction
A single, bigger boat than usual, was approaching Berserker Island. This boat looked much more 'royal', in that it was not only bigger, it also had a lot more colouration to it. Primarily, white and black amongst the brown wood of it. Its sail was black, and on the top of it had a bunch of Mentranian defenders staring out, in a guarding formation of some sorts.
A huge gathering of Berserker vikings emerged towards the shores of the island as this boat came to make a gentle stop on said shores. Fludgeon the Feared was specifically here, amongst the Berserkers, many of whom carried steel, mirror-like battleaxes of a giant size, whereby they stood all around Fludgeon in their massive numbers, awaiting for this huge wooden boat to make a gentle collision.
Their bull-like spikes on their helmets, made entirely of metal, portrayed an intimidating appearance on behalf of the Berserkers themselves. They had metal shoulder pads as their gear somewhat resembled Hiccup's old style of clothing when he was a teenager in terms of colouration, that colouration being the case for the rest of the Berserkers, apart from Fludgeon.
The boat had made a slow, swift turn so its front faced the left. It took over 5 minutes for this to happen, but the Berserkers were more than patient for it. The big vikings, and allies of Mentra, had halted their collective discussions and voices echoing all over the air in their big groups, the second the door-shaped hatch for the boat opened.
Emerging out of the hatch were a couple of masked Mentranian vikings, whereby the two of them leapt to the side in formation, and stood with their backs facing the direction of the hatch. Subsequently coming out of it was none other than the Mentranian leader in Hawkon the Second.
Fludgeon the Feared started walking towards the hatch as Hawkon came out; the two top vikings of their respective types held their hands out to one another and shook with sincere expressions, and smirks.
"Great to see you, Fludgeon." Hawkon said, smirking with genuine approval towards his in-pact ally.
"Likewise, sir Hawkon. The men are all honoured to meet you, for the first time ever, on our island." Fludgeon proudly declared, the Berserker Chieftan looking out to his men as they nodded at Hawkon with respect.
"I have to say, your island has...tons of rocky pillars within the waters." Hawkon chuckled, pointing to one of the rocky pillars that almost resembled platforms at the top of them, just a bit out to the seas from here.
"In a way, our islands bear resemblance. Look at our spikier mountain in the middle, much like Mentra has a mountain, albeit your island's mountain is thicker..." Fludgeon said, pointing to Berserker Island's main mountain, whereby the greenness of the grass shone through the distance as clear as day.
The mountain of Berserker Island was of course surrounded by numerous other mountains, and a couple of rocky overhangs and pillars that intertwined with one another, like a disfigured bit of terrain. But Berserker Island nonetheless housed plenty of space and vikings suitable towards the war effort against the Hooligans.
"So I had sent you back here, Fludgeon, to ready up the unveiling of the progress of our wing suit constructions for Catafly?" Hawkon asked.
Fludgeon and Hawkon both started walking shoulder by shoulder, as their respective vikings formed a surrounding around the two, intending on keeping a firm guarding of safety around them, given their significant statuses.
"Your men and my men have had the biggest exposure of work ethic, sir. The numbers game won't even remotely be a concern once you get a glance of our ongoing, and nearly completed, suits." Fludgeon declared.
"With the overseers party back at the island, my island, constructing the other half of the gear we'll need, I can imagine you've led quite the construction site here." Hawkon said, proudly smirking at Fludgeon.
Not a single mentioning of the purge that had occurred on Hawkon's behalf at all. What was more interesting as well was that Hawkon was acting like such a purge had never happened; just notice his demeanour and tone with Fludgeon. Maybe it's the case that Hawkon's much more relaxed and less paranoid, now that he's disposed of the general who had threatened to topple him, and that he's now alongside his in-pact ally, whereby their alliance had the Berserkers propping up the Mentranian regime in order to keep it alive, and to prevent the Hooligans from ever taking the island back.
The crowd of Berserkers, following firmly Fludgeon and Hawkon as they arrived at a giant wooden building, the building the Berserkers had constructed on their island a few years ago, for any sort of equipment creating, or smithing, or general weaponry. The building, amongst its shiny wooden structure, had a few bits of moss on the corners, giving it an ancient vibe and appearance, even though it was still relatively new.
Given that it was basically right out in the open of Berserker Island, it was all the more surprising that it had the appearance of a rotting, abandoned building. Nonetheless, it's been put to significant use by the Berserkers as of late.
Hawkon and Fludgeon stopped at the giant wooden door in front of them. As Fludgeon walked up to the door to push it open gently, he turned to Hawkon, as all the Berserkers behind the Mentranian leader remained in place and totally formal.
"The numbers are significant, sir Hawkon. Come on in with us to take a look." the Berserker Chieftan said, as he gently pushed the door open.
Revealing a gigantic hall, with massive rows of wooden tables consisting of Berserker vikings, with nothing but construction gear in their palms, Hawkon slowly stepped inside, as Fludgeon followed afterwards. The crowd of Berserkers were all informed that they had to stay outside, for this meeting between Fludgeon and Hawkon was basically a private one, due to its significance.
But it wasn't private really, considering that they were right within the vicinity of numerous other vikings, but oh well.
Hawkon, widened eyes and all, glared across the hall as he turned his head gradually and slowly into every direction he could look in; on the tables he could make out black, scaly-looking tops being pelted against with equipment by the Berserkers working on them, and the whole hall had nothing but banging, the smashing of nails and equipment, and footsteps echoing all throughout it.
As Hawkon, proudly watching on, started walking towards the middle of the construction hall, besides Fludgeon the Feared, the entire hall stopped what it was doing, in order to pay respect not just towards their Chieftan in Fludgeon, but also the Mentranian leader in Hawkon.
Fludgeon's robes, looking similar to the ones worn by Grimmel, had always provided him with that look of authority, and the notion that he wasn't somebody to be messed with, and that was especially the case from the view of the Berserkers themselves. Hawkon was much younger looking, given he was only 20, but his gear had prompted a sense of importance, from the metal shoulder pads, the significantly larger-looking viking helmet, just everything.
Hawkon was the only one in the hall who had a little logo of his father's face on his top gear, and that unique element had provided him with an even bigger notion of importance to the Berserkers, because that was due to the cult of personality his regime followed. The Berserkers, and Fludgeon himself, didn't need to follow the cult of personality, so they didn't have those little logos. But still, it gave Hawkon a unique impression.
In short, the appearances of the two top men in the hall had prompted a sense of importance.
Hawkon started studying the tables as he walked past the numerous sat-down Berserkers. He stopped at one table in particular where he had the opportunity to shake hands with one of the builder Berserkers.
"Sir Hawkon..." the Berserker happily saluted.
"Keep up the good work, friend." Hawkon nodded, as he held his hand out to shake the Berserker's palm, to which the Berserker proudly did so.
"Resume your work, gentlemen." Fludgeon declared to the hall, as Hawkon positioned himself besides him again.
At that, the entire hall once again contained echoes of smashing things, objectives, across its entirety as the Berserkers resumed their construction work of the needed wing suits.
"I have to say...I'm thoroughly impressed with this." Hawkon nodded, unable to contain his smile.
"So you should be, sir. Look at our work ethic within this place..." Fludgeon said, glaring across the entire hall.
Those long rows of tables, sat on by numerous Berserkers with scaly-looking tops and man-made wings in front of them, looked super busy. Their heads were facing downwards towards the tables for long periods of time that they looked like statues; that was just how focused and determined they were in creating the maximum amount of wing suits for their Mentranian viking allies.
"I have to say, Fludgeon, we're more than capable of Catafly, even though we're not quite to the point of ratifying it all for action." Hawkon nodded.
"I understand, sir, that you'll be wanting to take more islands around the archipelago, adding to the ones that we, as an alliance, already occupy?" Fludgeon asked, as he and Hawkon remained in the middle of the busy hall.
"Yes. Primarily for the war effort, and to provide my vikings with more living space when we succeed in victory against the Hooligans. If we turn a good chunk of the archipelago into our own territory in a short period of time, it'll be harder for those Hooligans and Outcasts to make a comeback against us." Hawkon said, crossing his arms.
"My men, whilst on the seas patrolling the direction towards the home island of the Hooligans, had intercepted two different islands, both of which looked vacant. The nearer we take over to the home island of the Hooligans, the bigger advantage we'll have in the end. And given that we've lost a valiant companion in Guddorn, I'm going to assume you'll want us to 'sweep up' more of the archipelago, including those two islands?" Fludgeon said.
"Explain their physical appearances, so we can draw up a plan on doing that. Our strength has been stable, so I'll order for those to be invaded pronto." Hawkon nodded.
"The first one...had grass, obviously, and woodlands. It was pretty hilly, and it contained quite a few big waterfalls, from what we could see. We're expecting there to be a foreign tribe of some sorts, and we weren't going to attack somewhere without the order to do so."
"Waterfalls...woodlands...very well, I'll be sure to take notes of that. And the other?"
"The second one had a coast completely cornered off by towers of boulders, alongside thick streams of water. From what we could tell, it too seemed to be forested, but again, whether or not a tribe lives on there, that was unknown to us."
"Two extra lands of living space for my vikings, and potentially yours, for when we reign in victory, are always crucial." Hawkon nodded, the despot eager to invade those two islands right away.
As Hawkon was about to walk, Fludgeon gently grabbed him by the shoulder, the despot taken aback by that grab just now, but Fludgeon had a good reason for it.
"It isn't just those two islands, sir. One extra island, which does, from past experience, have a tribe on it, is pretty much free for us to conquer. It's called Caldera Cay. You ever heard of it?" Fludgeon asked Hawkon.
The mentioning of another tribe to take over and imprison seemed to excite Hawkon, as the despot viking's eyes widened, and his whole face as a whole seemed to become more focused with a precise, solemn expression.
"I have not. But another tribe? the more foreigners conquered and eliminated, the better. What do you know of it?"
"A bit of a backstory, sir. The snowflake in Dagur, our previous Chieftan before we had to dispose of him due to his sympathy with the Hooligans, had a wife by the name of Mala, ruling over Caldera. Fortunately for me, when the time came to dispose of Dagur, she had joined him by his side, leaving the island she had ruled over, for a 'temporary' amount of time, as she had put it to her tribe at the time. Let's just say, that as I took care of Dagur, she wasn't exactly lucky herself."
"Oh my, good job, Fludgeon, absolutely good job." Hawkon said.
"So here's the situation: Caldera hasn't had their 'Queen' as she referred to herself, for years. They probably installed a new monarchy leader or Chieftan some time ago. We can take over it, rid it of that tribe, whereby their so-called, now former, 'queen' had a connection with Dagur, and that'll be a third island conquered on our efforts." Fludgeon the Feared nodded.
"Whilst we continue to finalise Operation Catafly, it'll be important, in light of hearing that, that we expand upon the isolation camps. We'll need more of them, and I think we ought to toughen our treatment of the foreigners at this point, given how many we'll be taking in after we've taken over these new islands. More Labour perhaps, for the foreigner children of those tribes." Hawkon said.
"I'd have told you about Caldera in particular, at an earlier point sir," Fludgeon said, "but it wasn't until my men intercepted those two other islands that it came back into my head."
Fludgeon and Hawkon both began walking towards the big large door of the hall again, as the Berserkers continued on with their construction of the wing suits Mentra and the Berserkers will need for Operation Catafly.
"Consider those three down for a 'visit'. Thank you, Fludgeon, and thank you for showing me the progress your men have made here today. We're going to create a unified archipelago at the end of this, once we've killed all of our enemies, and have won this war." Hawkon proudly said.
