AN: Hello my dear fans, huzzah I'm not dead…. I think, possibly, maybe…. Anyways this is a collab between myself and a good few friends of mine on Discord, namely MrMorriss and RMscifichick, with a few other quote, un-quote volunteers.
I will have to admit working on BDD was getting a little stale and no thanks to the amount of coursework I need to complete for my second year at uni, I've stalled a fair bit, but hopefully things in the near future will be more productive in content releases.
This one's been in the works for a good while and I'll be happy to see my loyal followers reviews and criticisms once more.
All the best.
GRLS signing off….
VRMMORPG: World of Brass and Iron.
The East Agaia Sea Region.
Admiral's Bridge, HMS Halezfax.
[Play: Hanz Zimmer: Gladiator - Victory Theme.]
POV: Lord Laird Wainhouse Folley.
Staring out of the forward windows of my bridge with my left hand holding a glass of ruby port, with a lit cigar between my thumb and forefinger, I exhaled a constant stream of smoke, letting the simulated nicotine calm my nerves.
A dozen reports were haphazardly strewn about my desk, several clerks and stewards busied themselves with various light duties.
Before me, in the far distance was the imposing superstructure of the HMS ReLandscaper, acting as the fleet's lead ship during our return trip home.
Between the ReLandscaper and my own vessel the HMS Halezfax was a full half of the Guilds combined Merchant Fleet, a combined fleet of forty merchant vessels, surrounded by a combined escort fleet of sixteen warships of cruiser class and below.
Not to mention the fleet's three capital ships consisting of the Super-Battleship HMS Relandscaper; my own Super-Battlecruiser HMS Halezfax; last but certainly not least our Armored Fleet Carrier HMS Darkfiend.
"Excuse me, Admiral.'' Giving a slight tilt of my head, I turned to the feminine voice that had caught my attention, stood in full navy dress before me was my ship's Captain, a lithe female Leonin standing six foot seven.
Her tricorn hat was tucked under her left armpit, her right hand grasping a manilla folder in her right hand. "Ah Captain Iadma, something to report?" I asked.
Quickly taking a pace forward to place the folder atop of my desk. "Sir, I have a meteorological report transmitted to us from naval station Roanoke." My right eyebrow raised.
"From the Gormless Git's Clan, eh." I muttered to myself, The world of Brass and Iron had a fully simulated weather system; so long as clans had a standing of at least neutral with one another, weather reports would be shared automatically by NPC weather stations.
"Thank you captain, you're dismissed." The good captain nodded before she about faced, leaving the report with me, placing down my glass and cigar, I opened the A4 sized folder and took stock of what data was sent.
My eyes widened somewhat at the data, lifting my personal phone from its base I connected to the ships CIC. "Contact the ReLandscaper and Darkfiend.".
VRMMORPG: World of Brass and Iron.
The East Agaia Sea Region.
Admiral's Bridge, HMS ReLandscaper.
[Play: Really Slow Motion & Giant Apes: Black String - The Cad-15297.]
POV: Lord Defendor of Landrover.
Playing the long game in Brass and Iron, you learned things very quickly, especially when it came to fleet communications, you don't speak over comms unless it's necessary you always encrypt the channels and finally you always, always kept it brief.
The fact that Liard, The First Admiral had not only pulled Myself and Calcuss from our daily duties (see: chores), but had openly called us on an unencrypted channel, would no doubtedly be seen as a dereliction of duty to the other Fleet Admirals of the Guild.
"We have a problem, a big fucking problem on our hands." Laird addressed myself and Calcuss. "I don't know if you've been given the reports by your captains or aides yet, but we have the mother of all Typhoons intercepting us at about 270 knots. It'll be on top of us in an hour or two at most."
"Well fuck, we'll have to prepare for it at least, we'll set the fleet to condition: Zulu, we'll reduce fleet speed to ten knots to reduce the risk of foundering." This was the best course of action I could put forward to my comrades.
"Agreed. I would also propose we increase the relative distance between ships, in case something goes wrong, whilst staying in visual range to effect a rescue effort if necessary." Lady Andromeda spoke up.
"We'll need to boost our search radar lest we end up running into ourselves, losing one of our own, or we end up with some unexpected guests poking their noses where they don't belong…." I was about to finish, when Lady Andromeda cut in.
"Unfortunately we won't be able to do that, my CAP just sighted the storm on the horizon, it's a devil's trifecta, rough seas, high speed winds and the mother of all electrical storms bundled into one…. If I had to guess this bitch has been supercharged by ambient magic, we're going to have to magically shield our electronics." Andromeda reported.
"Sonofabitch, distribute damage response artificers to shield anything likely to blow, we'll sail right into the heart of this bitch and reassess there." I said. "Recall the CAP Andromeda, and when that's said and done…." Andromeda once again interrupted me.
"I'll have the Vladmir and Pike dock onto the flight deck, it's fucking lucky those captains were spec'ed into ship handling, incase something like this happened." Andromeda huffed as Laird chuckled to himself.
"Into the jaws of death we sail, considering the probable intensity of the storm, we'll have to go analogue on communications, so light signals and flags from now on." I quipped flatly.
"Copy. Out." Andromeda finished.
"Godspeed." Laird stated before cutting the line.
VRMMORPG: World of Brass and Iron.
The East Agaia Sea Region.
The Bridge, HMS Halezfax.
[Play: Samuel Kim: Carol of the Bells Single - Carol of the Bells.]
POV: Lord Laird Wainhouse Folley.
The Halifax's bow slammed hard into a trough behind another wave, water washing the foc'sle deck, luckily with the sheer built into the ships bow the vast volume of water was pushed away rather than coming over the top.
The rainfall slamming hard into the bridge windows, visibility was such that if you looked outside you would see no further than a hundred yards past the bow and only then that was thanks to the bow mounted flood light.
Visibility was in such a sorry state, that the Halifax's ten other spotlights mounted throughout the ship's superstructure were trying their best to keep the fleet illuminated, in an attempt to avoid collisions.
This combined with the Relandscaper and the Darkfiend's own spotlights established a line of three beacons that could be used to navigate even with the visibility reduced to near nothing.
With the search radars offline to prevent damage from the lightning strikes we'd fallen back to traditional navigation methods.
No one would be resting easy in the near future, at least not until we managed to hit the eye of the storm.
"Captain, our magnetic compass is going nuts!" One of the bridge crew bellowed.
"Make adjustments as necessary, we'll be sailing in circles otherwise." My Leonin captain ordered, only for the crewmen to respond.
"We've tried to make the adjustments, nothing seems to be working." The crewman took a seconds pause before explaining. "The storm is interfering with Gaia's magnetic fields."
The storm however was causing far more interference than the programmed crew could even fathom, my HUD was glitching something fierce, the ever present mini-map was nearing complete static, my compass was spinning well and truly like a merry-go-round; my inventory was glitching out.
Several items failed to even materialise after actively trying to retrieve them, and worst off all was the sense of vertigo, my body felt as if it was being pushed, pulled and compressed by some invisible force.
The sensations felt way beyond what could be simulated, even for my high end feedback suit.
"Captain send out word to the fleet, Navigation is compromised, all vessels are to make best efforts for a staggered column formation, between the Relandscaper as formation leader and ourselves as the last vessel." I ordered, Iadma looked at me for a scant second before nodding in acknowledgement.
"You heard the admiral, send word to the fleet to make for a staggered column formation, helm reduce speed one quarter, give our merchants room to breathe." She ordered in her usual no nonsense tone.
Whilst she proceeded to command her ship, I took a step back bracing my back against the bulkhead of the bridge. I could feel it, I had no idea what 'it' was exactly, but something was wrong, really, really wrong.
N̷̤̂ȇ̸̥w̴̢̔ ̵͖̉W̵̩̓ỏ̴͇r̷̛̰l̵͇̄d̵̝̆ / ̶͕̈o̷͕͋f̷̙̊ ̸͍̀B̴̩̒r̴̤̀a̶͜͠s̶̠̈́s̷̟̆ ̶͈͊a̶͚͗n̵̘̓d̷̘̃ ̴͇͐I̴͙͝r̷̥̉ò̶̰n̸̼̍.
T̷̲̀h̵̩̿e̶͌͜ ̴̞̄Ḡ̵͉r̶͍̀ė̴̲ă̷̗t̸̟́ ̷̤̊Ë̵̳a̸̧͊s̴̯͒ẗ̶̬ ̵̺̈S̸̠͌e̸̡̛ä̵̧́ ̷̱̾ò̷̼f̵̥̋ ̸̠̉Ǵ̵̨h̷̠̅o̴̗͐s̵̟̽ẗ̷̗́s̵̻͝.
The Bridge, HMS Darkfiend.
[Play: Sabaton: The Symphony To End All Wars - Dreadnought (Symphonic Version).]
POV: Lady Andromeda Rivella.
I held myself steady as the Darkfiend ploughed through another swell, the Relandscaper barely visible through the rain pelting the bridge windows, the ships communications officer relaying every word from the Darkfiend's numerous lookouts.
"Captain, report from starboard side amidships, there's a rogue wave closing in ma'am!" Captain Minerva Ironheart's face grimaced at the news.
"No time to alter course, helmsman steady as she goes, sound the collision alarm, all hands brace for impact!" Minerva barked at her senior staff; I took to gripping the plotting table to the rear of the bridge, on the off chance that the wave collided with the bridge proper, so I wouldn't end up sliced to pieces by broken glass.
"Here it comes ma'am! BRACE!" an ensign bellowed, the two lookouts on the starboard bridge wing took the best of valour and ducked below the waist high armour plate that provided a walkway around the outside of the bridge.
There was a thunderous crash as the wave struck 32,000 tons of steel, the force of tons of water colliding with the bridge windows shattered them, even with the enchantment runes reinforcing the glass itself.
Water slammed several crewmen into various pieces of bridge equipment, knocking the unfortunate crewman unconscious, their bodies dropped to the floor like sacks of dropped potatoes.
I myself was left unharmed for the most part aside from being soaked through, I however did a double take when one of the crewmen put a call out to med bay, two of the crewmen were bleeding from various wounds caused by the glass shattering.
Quickly I took control of the situation. "Everyone to your stations, My aides and I will deal with tending to the wounded, Captain I'll need a damage assessment done; we took a bad knock from that rogue wave, I'll need to communicate with the other admirals as soon as possible."
The Great East Sea of Ghosts.
East of the Philades Contenant.
Qua-Toyne First Rate Royal Ship "Royal Heart".
[Play:Guy Michelmore: Jackboots on Whitehall: Jerusalem.]
POV: Ship Master Shiva Ironfang
It'd been sometime since the initial ambush had taken place; Privateers flying the flag of the Parapaldian Empire had initially drawn the Royal Heart and her two escorts into aiding a stricken commercial ship as the trio made way for home port.
Using the cover of a small archipelago, the privateers waited for the glare of the setting sun to blind the lookouts, before initiating the ambush proper.
Several privateer frigates closed the distance at a rather rapid 13 knots, causing the initial panic, which caused the escorts and the Royal Heart to solely focus on them when at about a distance of a mile and a half, the privateer flagship made itself known, by firing a double shot broadside.
The 32 strong broadside skipped 64 round shots off the surface of sea, like skipping rocks on a lake, one of these cannon balls was lucky or unlucky enough, depending on the point of view capable of decapitating the late commodore.
It was by sheer luck the crown princess hadn't been struck by the 24 pounder ball of iron, travelling several times the speed of sound; the same volley had incapacitated the captain in his day cabin two foot long splinters punctured his body necessitating him being taken to the orlop deck for treatment by the ships surgeon.
Leaving myself the ship's master, in the position of command. "Your highness, please retreat below deck where it's safer, Corporal stay with her highness, defend her to your dying breath if you must…." I ordered one of the many marines scattered on deck.
A rather broad chested human gave a salute, before offering his hand to the crown princess of Qua-Toyne. "Aye, ma'am; your highness please come with me." With that said and done the duo disappeared below deck.
"We're sitting ducks ma'am!" One of the ship's lieutenants bellowed.
I shot said lieutenant a filthy look, his words would do far more harm to morale than, the pirate bastards cannon volleys would. "Stow your belly aching, Leftenant; helm make best possible speed for the stormfront we were avoiding westward, signal the Rose and Surprise, tell them to delay the enemy, the crown princess cannot fall into the Empires hands at any cost!"
A chorus of "aye ma'am," was given to me in response to my orders.
With our starboard side holed by the long range volley, the Royal Heart made best possible speed towards the viscous storm front that now loomed off our foc'stle. "Ma'am at a guess we'll be making eight knots at best, even with the Rose and Surprise delaying the blighters, that third rate will begin closing the distance sooner than later." The helmsman addressed me in a hushed tone.
"We're dead if we fight, we're outnumbered and in no position to retaliate, given the odds we're running, at least then we have a chance, slim as it is." I replied, the ship's helmsman gave a solitary nod.
N̷̤̂ȇ̸̥w̴̢̔ ̵͖̉W̵̩̓ỏ̴͇r̷̛̰l̵͇̄d̵̝̆:T̷̲̀h̵̩̿e̶͌͜ ̴̞̄Ḡ̵͉r̶͍̀ė̴̲ă̷̗t̸̟́ ̷̤̊Ë̵̳a̸̧͊s̴̯͒ẗ̶̬ ̵̺̈S̸̠͌e̸̡̛ä̵̧́ ̷̱̾ò̷̼f̵̥̋ ̸̠̉Ǵ̵̨h̷̠̅o̴̗͐s̵̟̽ẗ̷̗́s̵̻͝.
Ë̵̗̇͠a̸̤͐̇͠s̴̢̜̥͆̔t̵̙͐̔̍ ̸͕͂ő̴̲̜̀f̴͈̔͛͜ ̴̲͖̌̈t̷̡͎̉͠ḧ̴̦̖́̉̕e̴̳͑ ̶̫͇͂͋͝P̶̠̏̅͝h̴͓͙͌̈͝i̸͍͖̓̔͝l̷̢͚͌a̷̦̓d̸̗̝̎͝ẽ̵̛͖̂s̴̢͖̜͐́̐ ̸̞̄C̶̹͠o̵̪̿͂̕n̷͖̭͜͝t̶̟͆̄͑e̶̟͚͗̽n̷̠͉̽ą̸͉̓̄n̸̜͎͒t̵̥̎̈̚.
The Bridge, HMS Halezfax.
[Play: The Dreadnoughts: Into The North: Roll Northumbria.]
Pov: Lord Laird Wainhouse Folley.
It'd been hours since our fleet had sailed head first into the stormfront, the seas had thankfully calmed, all we had to contend with was super dense fog, which reduced visibility to the point you could barely make out the ships bow; Andromeda had managed to finally establish radio communications, with the odds of magical enhanced lightning near enough gone.
Personally I'd rather she hadn't, because for the last hour, in the privacy of my cabin I'd been trying to disprove her hunch; very unsuccessfully I might add.
Our crew were no longer strings of complex code, and we were no longer in a game, my sliced open palm, oozing thick crimson blood proved this, one of my ornamental wakizashi display pieces was now coated in my blood.
"Fuck." I muttered to myself, as I made my way towards my ensuite bathroom to retrieve the presumably real first aid kit housed behind the mirror. As I busied myself by wrapping the wound as I popped a minor vial of newt healing.
I almost gagged on the potion as two things happened at once; first the taste was like licking a newt backside. (Even though I have no idea what it actually tastes like.) The other was a hand touching my right shoulder from behind.
The shock of which caused me to down the vial and almost choke in the process.
"My Lord?!" Iadma cried out in shock, as I gagged, coughed and spluttered, fist pounding away at my chest.
"C-captain…." I started before I had a bit of a coughing fit. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked her as she tried to straighten her own uniform which she'd ruffled in her panic.
"My Lord, Lady Andromeda and Lord Defendor are trying to get a hold of you on your private line, since you weren't answering your personal line, I made my way here." she answered me with her usual no nonsense tone.
I looked towards my desk to see my phone had fallen from its base, and I hadn't noticed it to place it back so others could call me. "Thank you Captain, it seems my phone fell from its base in the storm, I'll make haste and call my fellow admirals. You're dismissed, I'll come to the bridge once I've finished the call."
Iadma gave a curt nod and made her way out of my cabin, her eyes lingering on my bandaged hand a few seconds as she turned.
Placing the phone onto its red base, I inserted my finger into the number four of the twizzle dial, and rotated it clockwise until my finger couldn't go any further, removing my finger the dial twizzled back anti-clockwise.
Lifting the phone from the base I listened as the other side of the line rang through, muttering a 'thank god for speed dial' to myself as I waited, the distinct crackle of the line being answered. "Laird, we have a goddamn problem!" A distinctly booming female voice exclaimed down the line.
My brain short circuited for a few seconds and the first thing to leave my mouth was. "The fuck is this?" Needless to say the following explanation had me creased over howling with absolute joy at the misfortune of my fellow admiral.
Who had in his infinite wisdom decided on being the opposite gender for reasons and was now suffering with the choice of being an actual female.
Needless to say my sides were seriously cramped up and my left palm stung from repeatedly slamming it into my desk, trying in vain to contain my humour.
"Alright with visibility as shit as it is, we'll be radar only for the foreseeable future, let's tighten up our formations." I stated, still chuckling to myself under my breath.
"Aye with the Darkfiend's deck occupied by our two airships, we're shit out of luck on any chance of setting up a combat air patrol." Defendor responded.
"Welp, I best get to the bridge, I've got to at least look the part of a Lord and maintain composure for morale if nothing else." I finished, rolling my neck, getting a good click or two from it in the process.
"Alright then, hopefully this fog will subside before too long, I genuinely can't wait to see sunlight again. See you later." Defendor said, bidding farewell to me.
"Indeed, it'd be a welcome change. Ciao." I said putting the phone down, turning to my door, I examined myself in the mirror. It was a little strange I gotta admit seeing my former avatar's pale grey green face staring back at me.
"Best show myself and figure out how to boost morale." I said, opening my door, to make my way towards the bridge.
The Great East Sea of Ghosts.
East of the Philades Contenant.
Qua-Toyne First Rate Royal Ship "Royal Heart".
[Play: Andrew Davis: Arne: Rule Britannia - Rule Britannia.]
POV: Ship Master Shiva Ironfang
"Ma'am, that third rate has us dead to rights, she's gaining on us." One of the many lookouts bellowed from the fighting top, above the poop deck.
"How long until we're in the firing range of their chasers?!" I bellowed back, trying hard to be heard over the bellowing winds.
"Minutes tops ma'am…." the lookout responded.
"The enemy has us near enough dead to rights, they'll be desperate to board us to get at the princess…." I truly hated our fortunes, if only the prevailing winds had lasted longer, we could've made the coming battle much harder for them. "Set the main courses, let's try and pick up the wind." I ordered.
"Ma'am the spars took damage, they'll tear themselves apart before too long!" One of the ship's lieutenants shouted.
"I care not for the ship leftenant! Our duty is to the royal family, if we must break the ship to prevent the crown princess from being captured, raped and sold into slavery we will." I shot back angrily.
The Lieutenant blinked owlishly once, before responding. "Aye ma'am. Set the main course you sea dogs, we've no time to delay, we make for the stormfront or die trying!" he bellowed his orders.
"Gun crews prepare for action, we may have to fight tooth and nail the last half mile! All crew arm yourselves, take the knives from the gods damned galley if you have to!" I bellowed, upon hearing the order a marine went to the ships drums and began beating the signal to make ready the guns.
I could tell that fortune was not favouring us this day, it'd be close but if we could hold off the enemy to the last second, we could hopefully prevent the bastards from even attempting to board the Royal Heart.
The Great East Sea of Ghosts.
East of the Philades Contenant.
Parpaldia Privateer Third Rate Ship "Red Wake".
[Play: Band of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Bandstand Favourites Volume 4: Pirates of the Caribbean.]
POV: Captain Ioedan Lucaris.
Today was a good day, I had in a moment of genius managed to wound the pride of the Qua-toyne fleet; my escorts would no doubtedly be taking prisoners and slaves for the empire and their own personal amusement no doubtedly.
"Ready the grappling hooks you bastards!" I bellowed to my crew of bloodthirsty cutthroats. "I want that fucking princess, alive and untoched, anyone tries to rape the lass before me I'll cut your balls off and force feed them to you!"
Most of the crew bellowed out knowing that there were plenty others on that ship for them to go at, but the veterans of my crew knew full well my threat wasn't an idle one, the last man who disobeyed me ate his testicles one at a time, before I had that sod keel hauled.
"Starboard side, ready your pikes and stink pots don't give those Qua-toyne swine the opportunity to retaliate!" My second in command ordered.
As always I saw my ship's Bosun standing aloft on the rigging, the ex gladiator minotaur stood nine feet tall, built like a brick shithouse holding aloft his enormous boarding axe - blunderbuss over his head.
At the top of his lungs Bosun bellowed his usual war cry. "If any man dies without blood on his sword; I will rape their fucking corpse!" I had taken over the ship's wheel for the final moments before we would board the Royal Heart.
I only trusted myself when it came to actions like this. "Now!" I bellowed, we were within a couple hundred metres of the stormfront, this would be our one true opportunity to capture the ship and its crew.
It was then the most haunting sound I'd ever witnessed to make itself known, a titanic steel beast's prow breached the fog bank wailing that god awful sound, like a demonic whale call only somehow more sinister than that.
It was haunting and in the brief moment of hearing it, it was like listening to the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life, a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it would weep in their souls.
I froze, for once in my life my blood chilled like ice water, all I could think about was how to escape this monster of the blackest of oceans.
And there before me was a vessel, so out of this world, so vast with a spire that towered over the main mast, it lacked sails of any kind, defying the very wind itself as it thundered towards us billowing smoke of the blackest night.
It must've been travelling twenty knots at least.
And it turned towards us, the steel bow fast approaching like a knife, a knife that carved through the ocean like warm butter.
Every action I could think of ran through my head, I could do nothing, the end was coming, some panicked crewman manning the chase cannons fired, the cannon ball ricocheted off the bow and skipped over the ocean before sinking.
I had one action, I ran to port and leapt from the deck into the freezing waters. It took moments for my crew's brains to kick in, a few seconds too late as the ship of steel slammed true into the bow of the Red Wake and crushed it.
The Red Wake hadn't so much as slowed the beast down, it kept sailing true, the steel bow was forcing what remained of the Red Wakes fore end under the seas surface; all I could do was watch.
That was when the others made their appearance.
It wasn't alone, an entire armada of those monster vessels breached the fog bank, all made of brass and iron.
The Great East Sea of Ghosts.
East of the Philades Contenant.
The Bridge, HMS Halezfax.
[Play: Perly i Lotry: Song of the Vikings: Song of the Vikings (My Mother Told Me).]
POV: Captain Iadma.
"Ma'am communication just in from the Relandscaper; Hostile pirate contacts, They've engaged, requesting support." I turned towards my communications officer with a raised eyebrow.
"Pirates?" I spat with a bit of indignation in my tone.
"Aye ma'am, Relandscaper's magical radar has several vessels a couple of kilometres from it's bow, rangefinder's confirm black flags on half of the vessels; they um, can't fire without potentially turning the neutral fleet's flagship into potential kindling." He replied with a hint of confusion in his tone.
"XO sound battlestations!" I bellowed my tone full of authority, addressing the towering form of my ship's Loxodon Commander. "Communications you have thirty seconds to get as full of a situation report as possible. Now." As both my executive officer and communications officers attended to their duties I walked towards the portholes that made up the cruising bridge.
"Helm, all ahead, flank speed." I ordered the ensign manning the ship's wheel, Nikoom's baritone voice boomed through the ship's 1MC general announcement system.
"General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battlestations; up and forward on the starboard side, down and aft on the portside, set condition Zebra throughout the ship." With that announcement done another presence made themselves known on the bridge.
"Sitrep, Captain." Lord Admiral Folley said as he stepped through the bulkhead door onto the bridge proper, as always being present exactly where he was needed, when he was needed.
"M'lord, the Relandscaper has been engaged by pirates, the situation is unclear but I've ordered the Halifax to flank speed to clear the fog and engage the enemy." I stated with confidence.
"Ma'am, sir sitrep update from the Relandscaper, hostile force consists of age of sail frigates and or cruisers, range is between two to four kilometres." The communications officer looked a little put off by interrupting the Admiral and I in the middle of our briefing.
"Captain, It's your ship to command in combat, but seeing as we're dealing with a potential friendly fire situation with overpenetration, I'd like to recommend that the main guns stand down; instead have the secondaries and anti-aircraft guns ready for close quarter battle." I nodded at my lord and direct superior Admiral's provided counsel.
We were well within the fifteen kilometre range for both the 152 and 113 millimetre dual purpose secondary guns; additionally with the Halezfax building up to flank speed, we would be able to hose the decks with the various 40 millimetre anti aircraft mounts within a few minutes.
"Agreed, XO stand down the main guns, ready the secondaries and double-A's for action." I ordered; My lord had in the meantime taken to standing beside me by the bridge portholes.
Being the rearmost vessel of the formation provided the Halifax with two advantages; the first was being that the ship itself was a 54,000 ton battlecruiser, this allowed the ship to build up to her 40.2 knot top speed, allowing her to respond to an emergency without out running the fleet.
The second was the psychological, being as fast as most cruisers allowed the Halifax to close the distance with the enemy at an absurdly fast rate, which would cause the enemy to panic, making the bastard's gunnery sloppy.
The Great East Sea of Ghosts.
East of the Philades Contenant.
Parpaldia Privateer Fourth Rate Ship "Black Dragon".
[Play: Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1: In the Hall of the Mountain King.]
POV: Captain Dante.
Before my eyes, our victory over the weak Qua-Toyne swine had turned into a moment of defeat, the Royal Heart, had been saved by a monstrous vessel of iron, a vessel which bellowed a war cry akin to a wounded Kraken.
Black smoke belched from a mast behind the massive keep of iron, four cannons rose into the sky the sheer scale of which put the main masts of most first rates to shame, it must use sheer magical power to propel itself.
The beast wasn't alone, dozens of smaller ships were appearing out of the fog bank like a fleet of the damned had just been unleashed upon the oceans.
That's when the bow of a second monstrous vessel breached the thick fog, the keep whilst slimmer in appearance was a full third taller, at a guess, which gave it an air of prestige but what actually caught my attention was its speed.
The beast had completely ignored its ally who's bow had split the Red Wake's own in twain, it had its sight set upon us. "Man the guns you cur's! We're under attack!" dozens of my crew were caught off guard, dozens more quite literally had their pants around their ankles whilst helping themselves to the female sailors captured from the Qua-toyne escorts.
Peering through my spyglass I saw dozens of bodies manning a couple dozen positions on the bow, when much like the first monster, this beast raised six enormous barrels, which were slowly turning to the ship's starboard side.
I swallowed hard, my mouth felt dry, when my eye caught the sight of three more barrels being swung to the ship's starboard; the fucking thing was making ready for a broadside.
"Cap'n we need to cut loose!" one of my indentured crew bellowed from the fighting tops.
"Too late, they have the weather gauge, we'll never get clear of our prizes before that monster gets here…. Load double shot into the guns, don't wait for a command to fire. FIRE!" I barked, my eyes widened at a realisation, that monster is doing twenty knots at least.
The starboard guns belched smoke and fire as they opened fire as soon as they were loaded and aimed by their captains; still that metal monstrosity approached us head on, undaunted, closing the distance.
The vessel jinked to port hard, the tower like keep, visibly listing as the vessels enormous rudder fought the ocean itself to turn, I paled at the sight, dropping the spyglass to the deck, the lens shattering from the impact.
By the gods, that monster was longer than any warship I'd ever witnessed, so many cannons had us in their sights, several of the second largest ones opened fire, our guns fell deathly quiet all of a sudden.
Columns of water rose from the ocean where the round struck dozens of metres off of all of my frigates; several figures stood in full dress uniforms on a platform around the keep, from the distance I couldn't make out what was happening but it looked as if one of the crew handed something to who I presumed to be the ship's captain.
"In accordance to the Piracy Act 1837 and Slave Trade Act 1807, I captain Iadma Lunarshield will offer you one opportunity to surrender, completely and unconditionally, any attempt to flee, fight or resist will be met with extreme force…." The captain was a female, and an educated orator.
"I have nine eighteen inch rifled guns, loaded with 3,320 pound shells capable of punching through 18 inches of steel, I have shells loaded that will set fire to your ships and crew, you will die slow and agonising deaths, if any prisoners are killed from this moment forward. You will be hung, drawn and quartered. Do I make myself clear!" There was the threat, as expected, we were had, we couldn't run, couldn't fight and I would rather live a coward than die a martyr for an empire I cared little about.
"Boy, strike the colours, this is a fight we cannot win…." I threw my cutlass to the lad, who looked between it and myself. "Did I stutter boy, strike down the colours now!" I bellowed at him, the young lad ran up the stairs to the poop deck to climb the mizzen mast's shrouds and ratlines.
Once he was above the spanker, he swung hard and true, striking the rope holding the black flack aloft, declaring the Surrender of the Black Dragon and all aboard her.
Glancing around my fleet of frigates, all of their flags were too struck from their place declaring their full surrender.
"I understand your intentions of surrender, prepare to receive borders, any attempts made against them will be seen as an act of false surrender and your lives will be forfeit." It was over, with overwhelming firepower aimed at our fleet, our female 'guests' somehow found the strength to arm themselves.
That was when the third monster of the ocean made its presence known, two airships departing from its enormous flat top deck, not only did this fleet control the local ocean with overwhelming firepower, they too took command of the skies themselves.
I broke down into a fit of maniacal laughter, the Empire was fucked.
To Be Continued….
AN: PS. I'm gonna put this here, just to clarify why the hell this is only in the Overlord fanfictions, rather than any combination of crossovers.
It's because I'm only using the placenames of locations from other franchises to bulk out the Overlord new world, this one, is definitely going to be on the side of a slow burn fanfic rather than my usual burn hard and fast fics I typically write.
So more room to breath was a bit more than a little necessary.
TLDR; It's All in the new world, I'm just shit at naming places and decided to borrow from multiple sources. ¬_¬
Ciao.