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The damn storm showed next to no signs of easing as they finally narrowed in on their quarry, but the Faunus on deck with her didn't seem to mind all that much. They hunkered down on the starboard side, halberds pressed to the deck on their other sides and their stocky rifles hanging in front of them by thin cloth straps. Sienna was surprisingly good on the uneven deck, stalking up and down beside her soldiers and watching them with narrowed, hawkish eyes before she flicked her look out to the horizon.
Rion was kind of jealous of her sea legs, honestly…
She herself was at the back of the line of Faunus and a few feet away, standing and hanging onto the railing as best she could while she swapped between watching Sienna pace animatedly and looking for their target. Which was a hard job, given the sheets of rain and the roiling waves. That and the relatively sharper eyes research told her most Faunus had compared to Humans made who spotted the ship first no surprise.
"Target ahead, this side!" Khan called out, repeating it three more times as she roamed up and down their crouching ranks, making sure they all heard her clearly.
The Faunus in front of her turned to the woman and nodded exaggeratedly, to make it clear without screaming they'd heard her, and when Sienna looked to Rion she did the same. She did the same, looking up the line one last time and then turning towards the bridge. Raising her arm, she held up a single thumb, then closed her hand, and held it up again. She repeated the thumbs up three more times before she seemed satisfied Spark had seen it and turned back to her team.
"Al." She shouted, kneeling beside Rion and the Faunus in front of her. "Make sure the Human makes the jump."
"I can look after-"
"How many times have you made a five foot jump from ship to ship in a storm like this?" Rion's mouth clicked shut and she turned to stare at the floor, and Sienna sighed. "That's what I thought. I'm still not sure you're healed up yet, Human, and you're important. Deal with what comes from that."
"I'll get her across, High Leader." The massive man's voice was young in spite of his size and apparent status, but Sienna's decisions weren't for her to judge, so she let it go. Looking over his shoulder the masked man said, "I'll throw you. When you hit the deck, bend your knees and roll. It'll help."
"Sure." So, a bit like deck hopping in hard-space. "I'll manage."
"Three minutes!" Sienna called, repeating it over and again and she walked up and down the line yet again. "Get ready to board! Expect superior numbers!"
"Means no hesitating, no quarter." Al called over his shoulder to her, "Running or fighting, shoot 'em down."
"I…" She bit back her snipey retort and sighed, shaking her head. "I got it, yeah."
Before they got to the ship, she heard the sound of gunfire thwacking against the wood she was leaning against. Looking up, she could see rounds smacking against the boathouse too, and all along the hull that she could see. The Humans on the ship probably couldn't see them beyond a hazy outline through the storm. When she risked a peak over the solid wood, she certainly couldn't see them through it all. Just a hazy outline with a light at the front that was trying to turn towards them but couldn't quite get around enough, and the occasional streak of Dust-based ammunition arcing towards them.
She ducked just in time for a long line of shots to carve over her head and slam into the wood she was sheltered behind. It was random fire, she could see it wandering along the length of the ship, but put the fear into her well enough regardless.
"Copperhead!" Sienna called loudly, "The Humans can't see. You can."
The man at the front was more lithe than the others, and more thin, but only just. He stood and leaned to his side, letting the Faunus behind him wrap an arm around his hips to hold him steady while he held up his rifle. It wasn an automatic weapon like she'd figured, and popped in little bursts of two or three rounds every time he fired, but in spite of that the incoming fire started to wane quickly under his work. Whether he was killing or suppressing them, she couldn't be sure.
But she had a feeling Sienna hadn't called on the man to suppress their enemies all alone.
"One minute, prep smoke!" Sienna ordered, this time staying where she was and looking up and down the line at the grenades her men held up. Nodding, she looked up and gnawed on her lip. Rion didn't, but she could hear the other ship's gunfire now, and could have sworn she heard someone else shouting.
Finally, the Faunus woman smiled viciously and ordered, "Ten feet, throw!
As one, the Faunus stood and turned, hurling the little balls in their hands through the air. Rion was on her feet a few seconds after, just in time to watch them begin to trail smoke through the air before clattering down on the other ship's deck maybe six feet away. Just before the smoke swallowed it all, she could just make out the shapes of bodies laid limp over the railing and scattered across the deck beyond it. She could even spot a few heads, poking up over the railing and then ducking back down as the standing unit of Faunus forced them down through their short rifle bursts.
As the smoke over-took the ship the Faunus knelt, Rion herself dragged down by Al's strong hand. Rifle fire cracked overhead in the vacuum they left behind and, turning to take up their halberds, they shuffled further down the ship, towards the fore. But the Human crew on the other ship couldn't see through the smoke any more than Rion could, and looking over a shoulder she could see the rounds still ripping through the air where they'd been hunkering down.
Sienna's sharp whistle dragged her attention back to the woman as every Faunus but Al and Sienna Khan herself stepped onto the railing and leapt, vanishing into the smoke. Then she heard a woman scream, cut off in a ragged, pain filled sound before the sound of their bullpups splitting the air filled the fog.
Then, Al laid a soft hand to her chest, right over her heart. Her eyes narrowed and she looked up into his eyes to see him shrug, "Semblance."
His hand snapped up and toward the other ship, and she followed it, arcing like a thrown rock. The air whipped by, warping the sound of the fighting below, but she remembered his instructions and her own, old experience. As soon as she felt the slightest hint of the deck under her feet she let her knees drop and pitched forward, rolling across the wooden ship and fighting to keep hold of her rifle.
As it turned out, doing this on a rolling ship was incredibly different to her space-borne experiences.
Someone slammed into her as she tried to stand and she collapsed, rifle clattering across the decking beside her as a man in a bloodied white uniform tried to drive a knife down into her throat. She had him by the wrists and ground the bones together under her trembling arms, but aside from gritting his teeth and spitting in her face, he ignored it and shuffled up her, straddling her stomach and leaning down to bear his weight down on her.
Then a whip snapped around his neck and yanked him off of her with a wet cracking sound. He collapsed in a limp heap at her feet and she scrambled away to get her rifle and stagger to her feet, searching the fog for anyone else. She heard feet and turned, just catching another white and blue uniformed man coming at her with a pipe before his head snapped to the side. She heard someone scream at her next and turned, spraying automatic fire into a woman's chest as she sprinted for her like someone out of a football game.
Rion bobbed to the side to let the woman fall by her and moved forward, sweeping back and forth as she made her way through the fog. She saw a shape in the smoke and raised her rifle, but didn't fire. Instead, she shuffled forward, until she saw the blue of the Faunus' uniform. She looked at Rion for a moment and then nodded curtly, slipping by and vanishing into the smoke Rion had come from.
A laugh made her spin on her heel, nearly shoving her weapon into Sienna's face before the woman caught it. Smiling, she said, "Ten steps past me. You can just wait at the rail, we're about done here."
Then she slipped by, vanishing into the smoke as the wind suddenly picked up into a gale, blowing it away. The smoke fought it, clogging the air and hanging together as it was blown away.
Quietly, Rion followed Sienna's instructions and found a good spot at the ship's railing to wait until the boarding action was done with.
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"Ten prisoners, but one of 'em took a shot to the gut. Deep. Probably intestinal. You know how those go, Ma'am." The masked Fang soldier said, standing a few feet away from where Rion and Sienna were sitting. Past him, the rest were watching a little cluster of exhausted, bloodied sailors huddling against the railing while one tended to the wounded tenth on the ground. "Unless we get to a hospital-"
"If he makes it to Menagerie, he makes it." Sienna cut him off with a dismissive, relaxed wave. Smiling toothily, she added, "If not, then oh well. One less murdering Human mouth to feed."
"I feel like I should be offended?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Rion." Sienna chuckled, pointing at her and then back at herself. "Which part of what I said did you take offense to?"
"I'm actually not sure." Rion chuckled, shaking her head and asking the Faunus, "Did you get the Captain?"
"Hmm…"
"Answer her, Kobold." Sienna sighed, "She beat me by about ten seconds."
"...We didn't." The serpentine Faunus finally answered, long tail flicking agitatedly. "We stormed the bridge and he put a bullet through his head. We got his second before she could do the same, though."
"Well, that's unfortunate…"
"Is it?" Sienna asked with a little sneer, "First Officer should know just about whatever the captain did. How else could she take over if he got killed?"
"A whole number of ways that would keep whatever secrets we'd want secret." Rion sighed, shaking her head and waving the woman off when she opened her mouth to argue. "It doesn't matter now, though. He's dead either way, and we have her either way. As long as we keep her."
"I have a guard on her specifically." Kobold answered wearily, turning to Sienna and adding, "No real wounds among us. Al lost his halberd, though, and Alex lost her rifle. Both of 'em to the drink."
"I'll see them replaced." Sienna nodded, raising an eyebrow, "Will that be all?"
"Yes, High Leader." He answered, flicking a significantly less than subtle look at Rion and adding under his breath. "I'll see to a guard and-"
"I'm more than a match for Rion, rest assured." Sienna dismissed him easily, eyes narrowing when he turned to her. Quietly, she asked, "Or would you like to put my skills to the test personally?"
"No, Ma'am." Kobold nodded curtly, turning to stalk off, halberd in hand.
"They mean well." Sienna sighed as the Faunus left, "Genuinely, they really do. But after everything that they went through even before Taurus' little coup… Well," Sienna turned a smile on her and chuckled, "I hope you can forgive them their biases and paranoia."
"I do." She could understand the fear and the hate for a species that had done half of what Humans had done to the Faunus. Even when she'd… 'Left' her life behind, she hadn't really known how to fear about the alien races of the fallen Covenant. Fear? Hate?
None of it had really held a lot of weight, compared to what had happened…
Especially what the Elites had done, towards the end.
"Are you in there?"
"Hm?" She blinked, looking back to the Faunus across from her. "What happened?"
"I said that the lull in the storm is coming to a stop, so we ought to head inside." Sienna answered quietly, eyeing her with those sharp, curious eyes of hers. Smiling thinly, she said, "Perhaps we can talk a bit, about whatever that machine of yours actually is."
"Or we could not." Rion sighed, standing and calling out, "Where are you going to store the prisoners?"
"Old fishing hold." One of the Faunus called back, turning to her while the others herded the little cluster of pirates towards the door. "Ten foot jump at least to get from the bottom up to the hatch onto deck, and we… Don't really have anywhere else for 'em."
"Good idea, but maybe shove a cot in there for the wounded one." Rion nodded, pacing away from Sienna and trying to ignore the eyes she felt on her back all the way. "Bandages and the like, too. Even if we're not-"
"Yeah, yeah, already figured the same and sent someone to get it sorted." The guard sighed, waving her off and turning back to his work. As he left, she caught his muttered, "Damn Human…"
Sighing, she ignored it and turned around, raising an eyebrow at the unamused looking High Leader and asking, "What?"
"You can't dodge my questions forever, Forge." Sienna hissed, closing with her pressing her face so close to Rion's that she could smell the other woman's sweat. Staring into her eyes, she said, "Eventually, this won't be a two way, beneficial relationship. Eventually, you and the Belladonnas will need me and mine again. And I won't know if I can trust you, with all this side-stepping and secret-keeping."
"Are you threatening me…?"
"No, I'm warning you." Sienna answered hotly, shoving past her and adding over her shoulder, "Before it's too late, and things escalate. Like they always do."
"You know, Sienna, you care an awful lot about what happens to a Human." Rion called after her, crossing her arms and cocking a hip as the rain began to pound down again. Turning, she could see the sheets of rain approaching along with the darkness of the thick clouds. "Storm's coming back in…"
"Yes." The Faunus snarled, turning and planting a foot between them. "It is, and you'd best make sure you have shelter when it does get here. Because who knows what will happen if you don't?"
"Okay now that sounds like a threat-"
"Take it how you like." Sienna shrugged, turning and leaving without another backwards word.
Rion watched her go and then turned into a gust of wind and rain as it slammed into her. It sucked to follow the other woman after what felt like a very strong moment on her part, but… Well, the rain was cold.
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Sienna stepped into the little room that had been allocated for her and collapsed onto one of the bunks. Sighing and resting a foot on her knee, she said, "Good work everyone. Boarding by text-book, nothing special and no surprises. I couldn't be happier. Now we're out of Human sight, does anyone have any injuries to report?"
She turned a look on each soldier in turn, getting curt shakes of the head from all but one who showed off a long, thin cut to her shoulder. It was shallow, and didn't even look to have bled much, but where it was would be… Inconvenient if a fight started. But it had obviously been cleaned, and another Faunus already had a bandage in his hand, so she only nodded and moved on to the next Faunus until she was done.
All that fighting and only one, minor wound…
Fortune was with them, it seemed.
"Now that's settled," she sighed, leaning against the pole that held up the bed above her, "Ilia."
"S-Sorry." The injured woman said, slipping off her mask while her brother at arms set to work on her arm. "I should have seen her coming. But I was busy trying to get to Miss-"
"You did fine, Amitolia. Don't dwell on a scratch." Especially for a simple stand-in, and one who wasn't terribly adept at actual combat. At least outside of duals and surprise. More importantly, "Did you get what we needed before-hand?"
"Yes, High Leader." Ilia nodded, fishing around in her fitted uniform top for a moment and then drawing out an old looking Scroll. Opening it, she started pressing buttons and stammered, "J-Just lemme log in…"
It was annoying, waiting while she did that, but Sienna preferred the annoyance to the problems that came from an agent that didn't even bother to lock their Scrolls. That could get more than a few plans ruined… And people killed.
Finally, though, it kicked on, letting out the sound of rain pounding against wood. And then, a bit muted but nonetheless there, a woman's voice, "Placing bets?"
"Only one of them was ever a Fang." The more masculine voice answered, adding a belated, "Well, recently at least."
Ilia hit a button to pause it and smiled sheepishly, "I-It's, uh, about five or ten minutes worth."
"It'll do." Sienna smiled, "It'll do splendidly…"
She'd teach Khali why it wasn't even worth trying to trick her while trying to get her to do their dirty work all at the same time. And then, she'd put the Humans that thought Faunus ships were easy targets to sea and salt, and put an end to the deaths of Menagerie's people. All in only a handful of days.
What could have been better?
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JC the Rebel :
Thanks!
Kpmh2001 :
That basically sums it up, yeah. The chapter's plot AND the gun. XD