18. New class of ship

Urst Arlson sat in his study, looking over the damage done to Ovis' battle fleet, they got off lightly compared to others but the Krake's tooth had been hit many times and would need to spend weeks in repair. His attention was drawn away from his work when he heard the sound of gunfire, he was about to go and investigate when his father burst in to his study, the Admiral Arlson looked slightly dishevelled.

"What happened to you?" Urst was concerned since his father normally kept his appearance immaculate

"That doesn't matter we're leaving now" his father started gathering Urst's maps and other mementos

"Why?" he saw men clearing out his father's study and his mother seemed to be in a rush as well

"I was part of the plot that killed Atris now his giant of a son is looking to kill us, including you"

Urst was surprised at his father's admittance of treachery but he had nothing to do with the plot, he wouldn't betray Ovis like that, "What the hell are you talking about? What was this supposed to achieve?"

"They were all supposed to be stabbed in the back but some idiots messed up with Asla and Sotris managed to finish his fight before the men got in to position, we tried to turn the boy in to a puppet but that failed as expected" the admiral threw everything he could grab in to a chest as his men also grabbed whatever they could, "I told Kismet this had all gone to hell and we should all just leave before we were discovered, now come on we need to hurry before Ovis makes his way here"

Urst's father barely paid any attention to him as he packed a chest full to bursting, Urst was lost in a swirl of emotion as his father tried to urge him to help in their escape, he had no part in this treachery and he was perfectly happy fighting and rising the ranks along side Ovis but now all his hard work was thrown out the window. Urst's head finally cleared and he made a decision, he pulled out his pistol.

"You're not going anywhere, your mutiny failed and we all know what happens to unsuccessful mutineers" Urst held his father at gun point, "Why did you even do it?"

Larist Arlson held up his hands as he turned to face his son, "So I could strike out on my own , Atris would've killed me if I stole his ships but if everything falls apart then the ships are mine as they are right now" Larist took a step forward, pleading with his son to put the gun down, "I wanted to build an empire for you to inherit, riches and glory, not for someone else and their son but for me and you"

"So why didn't you tell me about the plan?" Urst kept his pistol pointed at his father

"You were too close to Ovis, we couldn't risk a leak" he could see his father internally debating whether to continue trying to convince him or to just leave him to Ovis, "Please put the gun down and come with us, Ovis will be here soon and he will not be kind"

Urst could hear Ovis' roar over the sound of gun fire, it was obvious he was slaughtering the men trying to delay him, Urst had to make a decision now. He thought back to when he first met Ovis, he was 10 when he first saw the primarch, Atris and Asla had called all the ships under their command together to announce their union and Urst's father had brought him along. It wasn't long before the two were drinking, pillaging and reaving together, when Ovis was given his first ship the primarch picked Urst without a second thought and through all their adventures Ovis never once dismissed his opinion or held his mistakes against him. Ovis valued him as a friend and comrade and Urst had to do the same.

"I'm sorry but you're not going anywhere" Urst had made his decision and whether Ovis appreciated it or not would be up to him

The sounds of slaughter were close now and Larist had run out of time, he sprang forward and caught his son off guard, grabbing the gun he elbowed Urst in the face and tore it from his grip. Urst fell back against his desk as his father stood with the pistol pointed at him, there was a second where both thought father would shoot son but there was no time, Larist threw the pistol away and made his escape.

Urst nursed a bloody nose as he watched traitorous men flee and soon enough the massive form of Ovis appeared before him, Urst could say nothing to his commander and friend, he could feel the rage radiating from Ovis.

"Explain yourself" his voice was as cold as ice and froze Urst's heart

"This was all my father's doing, I knew nothing, I never betrayed you" Urst looked Ovis in the eye, hoping his friend would believe him, "I never would"

Ovis took a deep breath before turning away from Urst without a word, "The traitors are fleeing, make sure the ships and land batteries get in as many hits as they can before they're out of range" He spoke to one of the men next to him, "Gather the loyal admirals, we need to discuss how to move forward"

"Come on Urst we have work to do" Ovis walked away without another word

Urst smiled, it was just like Ovis, he was on thin ice but he wasn't drowning just yet and Urst would make sure he did not.

The admirals first met in the treasure vault due to the circumstances of their gathering, the 20 normally met in one of the chambers carved in to the mountain. The meeting room was large with a great circular table in the centre and 22 chairs placed around it with a map of the territory controlled by Atris and Asla taking up most of the table. The 9 loyal admirals were already sitting when Ovis entered, his mother had taken her seat and his brother sat in one of the chairs that was reserved for one of the traitors, Ovis took the seat that was once reserved for Admiral Lusow and Urst simply stood behind him. The room was silent for a few minutes before Admiral Strass spoke up.

"So what do we do now?" Strass looked across the table at Ovis

"Don't look at me, with my father gone all power falls to my mother" Ovis turned to the woman in question

Asla sat deep in thought for a few moments, "The reason I survived for so long amongst such cut throat brutes is because I knew when I was out of my depth, I never challenged an enemy I couldn't beat, I kept out of the way of the stronger pirates while I grew stronger and then I would kill them before they realised their oversight" she sighed, "I am not skilled enough to handle this situation and there is only one here who is, so as your mother and superior I am ordering you to organise this mess and bring me those bastards heads and their ships"

Ovis looked at the map that took up most of the table, wooden ships showed where each of the admirals had their battle fleets with their personal signets denoting which battle fleets belonged to which admiral. Ovis stood up and gathered the ships that symbolised the traitor admirals.

"They fled only an hour ago so they will still be in the range of our planes, we have enough undamaged ships to sail out and destroy them but logistically we need to fix the damage done here first so for now we let them go but I will send out a squadron of planes to bleed them a little" Ovis placed the traitor ships out at sea, "They will likely break up and seek out their fleets to fully turn their loyalty"

"Why do you assume their ships and crew aren't all traitor?" Admiral Jalles asked, he wasn't much physically but the man was the sneakiest pirate on Krake

"Simply too many people, I believe they only told their close staff and most loyal crew, they didn't bring their whole fleet not just to minimise the chance of their ships being sunk but so they wouldn't leave ships behind in case of failure" Ovis pushed each of the ships in a different direction, "They will likely split up and try to evade any retribution but first they will head to their fleets and garner as much support as they can, Pollar and Dastre I'll need you two to get back as many of those ships as you can and sink the rest"

The two men in question were the best orators they had, Pollar could convince a crew to fight on half pay, and had more than once, and Dastre was the admiral that had seen the least fighting since he normally convinced his enemies to give up with his words. They both confirmed their orders and would carry them out.

"The only wild card we have is Kismet, he couldn't gather support from within my father's personal force and he has no ships at sea, he only managed to escape with a handful of ships from my father's fleet but he's no threat on his own, he'll either keep his head down and get as far from here as he can or he'll attempt to ally with someone so he can finish what he started, either way he's not our main concern right now" Ovis sat back down, "The rest of you will be tasked with keeping our territory under our control, once word gets out about this the scavengers will gather, I'll take my father's fleet and hunt the traitors down, my mother should keep her ships and men here to defended the island and my brother will take control of Lusow's fleet and join the other admirals"

Ovis leant back in his chair, "You all have your orders, I will not lose control of a single drop of ocean, if you find any of the traitors sink their ships and bring them back here in chains, understand me!"

"Sir!" the admirals answered in unison

The admirals stood and quickly filed out of the room, leaving Ovis with his mother and brother and Urst still standing behind him, "I would have never been able to do that, your father would be proud"

"Have you heard from the doctor yet, is his body ready for burial?" Ovis asked

"He's been cleaned and dressed and a lid is being carved for him, he's floating beside Lusow as we speak" Asla told her sons, "We'll bury them both tomorrow before everyone departs"

"Good" there wasn't much left to say so Ovis simply stood up and went to check on the status of his ships

The traitors had sailed for hours as a united force with torpedo planes attacking them sporadically and sinking a few of their escorts. The ragtag fleet had dropped anchor in the middle of the ocean, they were miles from any land, the traitor admirals had convened on Kammes' flagship, the Bloody blade, he had always been the most level headed and unshakable of them all and always acted as a voice of reason.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Harka screamed, he was the opposite of Kammes, a brutish man who was always quick to violence

"Calm down Harka, we escaped and they are probably scrambling to pick up the pieces" Somta was known for being laid back, it was impossible to get him to panic, even if his ship was sinking he would be as calm as ever

"Shut your fucking mouth Somta, I don't want to hear from an idiot like you" Harka turned on Kismet, his massive form making the distinguished commander look small, "This was all your plan, you convinced us all to be here and you couldn't see it through, why didn't you kill Atris' son while he was right next to you? We could have killed more than one of them that way"

"I couldn't be seen killing Sotris, that would have led to a bloody battle over every ship" Kismet stood up to Harka, staring him down, "You call Somta an idiot but you were only given your position because of your bloody reputation, I set everything up and I played my part perfectly, it was Arlson's men who failed to kill Asla and Horson's men who didn't get in position quick enough to kill Sotris and Kammes' men who failed to kill Ovis"

"So you're saying my crew is the only one worth a damn in this entire conspiracy" Harka chuckled as he turned away from Kismet

"If anyone can truly be blamed for our failure it is Kitla" Lotre looked at the conspirator in question as she said her name

"What the hell are you talking about" Kitla got in Lotre's face, Lotre was a woman famous for her complete lack of a filter, she said what she thought and she didn't care what others thought about it

"Ovis was our biggest threat in this mutiny and he was under your command" Lotre dug a painted nail in to Kitla's chest, "You could've found a way to kill him and then we all would have been gathering for his funeral and not that old bag of bones'"

"You think it's easy to kill Ovis" Kitla knocked Lotre's hand away, "I've seen that man take a shell to the chest, blown off his ship and not 5 minutes later he's laughing about it, his shirt burned clean off by the explosion but he was untouched"

All the traitors took a step back at the story, they couldn't believe it, Kitla smirked as her colleagues understood how impossible the task of killing Ovis was, bullets barely bruised him and he was too quick to be stabbed and explosions barely singed the hair on his chest.

"You could have left him to the sea" Kammes suggested

"He would have swam to shore"

"Plenty of islands where nothing grows" Somta spoke up

"He would have swam after us and killed me for leaving him there"

"It doesn't matter what we could have done, let's just collect our ships and what Evis promised us and try not to die" Arlson took a swig from a bottle, the admiral had become increasingly melancholic since the traitors had made their escape

"Fine does everyone remember the rendezvous point?" Kismet looked around as all the traitors nodded, "Get all the ships you can and sink any you can't, we'll meet again in 4 weeks and then we can talk about not dying"

Ovis watched as hundreds of workers climbed over his ship like ants, it had been spared the most intense bombardment but he had ordered it battle ready by nightfall so repair crews had been working on it from the moment the traitors left and will probably be forced to work right up to the deadline with no break. Other ships were in dry dock beside the Krake's tooth with every spare set of hands put to getting as many ships battle ready as quickly as possible, the noise and activity on the docks was 100 times greater than normal but Ovis still heard someone walk up behind him.

"Thank you for coming Urst" Ovis recognised the sound and gate of his first mate's footsteps, "Follow me"

Urst followed Ovis to a secluded part of the island, past many manufactories processing raw materials in to parts and ammunition and past many slipways where half build ships had been forgotten in favour of repairing damaged ones, the part of the island dedicated to building new ships was the quietest it would ever be but Urst still heard the sound of work coming from a single slipway. Ovis walked up to armed guards who blocked the way forward, these men hadn't moved from their post even during the invasion. The two walked to one of the yards reserved only for the construction of the biggest ships, it was completely closed off and men guarded the entrance.

"From the moment I built the first plane I had been designing this, only me, my parent and the men building it know it exists and only my parents and I know what it is"

Urst followed Ovis in to the shipyard and he was greeted to the sight of the largest ship he had ever seen, bigger than even the largest battleships constructed on Krake, from bow to stern it was longer and from keel to deck it was taller but the first thing that Urst noticed when he looked up at the deck was the absence of any guns, there were a number of anti-personnel guns in place but no heavy cannons expected of a ship of that size.

Ovis took Urst up the scaffolding and on to the deck of the ship, he saw that the deck was indeed completely devoid of any heavy weapons, it was completely flat except for some railings running along it and a ramp at the end of it although there was a greater number of smaller anti-personnel positions on both the port and starboard sides.

"Why does a ship this big only have guns that small?" Urst asked as he looked around the deck and up at the bridge that towered over them, "And why are you showing it to me?"

Urst had hoped that this was a sign of Ovis' trust in him despite the actions of his father but he doubted that, Ovis smiled as he spread his arms wide, "This is your ship, the first of its kind and it's all yours Commodore Arlson"

Urst took another look around the deck and understood the lack of big guns a bit more, he had to earn that trust back and that started by serving in a non-threatening role, "But why no guns?" Urst looked for a practical answer this time not a political one

"This ship isn't designed to fight other ships, its designed to carry the means to fight other ships"

"An aircraft carrier" Urst realised as he saw the ship in a completely different light

"Exactly, I was going to reveal and launch it after Lusow's funeral, even planned to name the damn thing after him, I think I'll let you think of a name"

"The time it would take to train the crew and the planes and fitting it in on a strategic, tactical and logistical level, it won't be battle ready for at least half a year" Urst's mind was already racing as he tried to analyse all the ships strengths and weaknesses as well as how it would fit in to a fleet

"I already have the planes needed for it as well as trained pilots, 50 of the latest design fresh from the factory specially for this ship, the crew has already been picked and they are being informed of it as we speak" Ovis had thought of pretty much everything, "Your staff have been hand picked and the ship is too be launched after my father's funeral, it will take us about two weeks to reach our first objective, that is all the time you have to train your crew to battle readiness"

Urst wanted to complain about the lack of time but the only one he could really blame for this was his father and the other traitors, if they hadn't gone through with their half baked plan then some other fool would be scrambling to figure out how to run and utilise this ship and he probably would've had all the time in the world to do it.

Ovis pulled out his watch and checked the time, "We should be setting sail soon wouldn't want to miss the funeral" Ovis made his way towards the scaffolding, stopping at the edge of the deck, "And you were always going to be the captain of this floating mess, I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it"

Urst smiled as the two made their way to more populated parts of the docks.

The Krake's wrath sailed out until there was nothing on the horizon but open ocean, the bodies of the dead men had been cleaned and dressed as they were in life, they each lay in a small boat surrounded by gold and jewels and many other treasures. Ovis watched as a priest chanted a prayer over the bodies, after the priest was done lids were placed over each boat and nailed shut, the lids had the names of each man carved on them as well their titles and achievements along with intricate swirling patterns. Once the lids were secured Ovis stepped towards Admiral Lusow's coffin, he took out his knife and drew it across his palm, he let a few drops of blood fall in to the swirling patters before moving to his father's coffin and doing the same again. Everyone present did the same until the carved channels in the lids flowed with blood and strategically placed holes drained it in to the coffin.

The Krakens believed fully in the power of blood, especially the power of blood to bind people, a promise made in blood is one that can't be broken, a marriage was sealed in blood and if your blood goes to the grave with someone then you are bound for even longer than life. Ovis and his brother climbed down netting hanging off the side of the ship as both coffins were lowered in to the water, together they pushed them both out to sea, they watched as the two coffins slowly sank below the waves.

After the bodies had sunk and were out of sight the solemn part of the funeral was over, those present drank and sang and danced until the sun went down and as was tradition as much as everyone drank they also tipped that much over board, there was a constant stream of alcohol down everyones' throats and in to the ocean. Ovis drained another bottle and threw it over board as he took a seat next to his mother.

"Right before you were born, well not born, but right before you arrived your father was talking about conquering the world" Asla took a swig from a nearby bottle, "The only reason he entertained the thought of an alliance was for an heir and the second we agree to it you arrive, if he just kept his mouth shut for a few more seconds he wouldn't have had to put up with me for so long but from the day he was born to his last he could never shut up"

Ovis chuckled as he looked up at the stars starting to come out, "You ever figure out where I came from?"

Asla simply pointed to the sky, "Somewhere up there, doesn't really matter, whoever threw you in to the void is a fool and if they ever come looking for you punch them in the face for me"

Ovis thought back on his earliest memories, first was golden light like the sun and then suddenly more lights not like the first one, these lights were colours never seen by the human eye and were accompanied by a million chattering voices as well as the worst turbulence, he remembers being thrown about like a ship in a storm and then it was all still and he heard the voice, the lights and voices were gone and all was black and still and then he woke up in his mother's arms. Ovis had thought about those memories many time over his life but the one thing that stuck out to him was the last voice, all the other voices spoke in a myriad different languages but the last one spoke Kraken and it's voice sounded familiar to the primarch.

Ovis put those memories out of his head and focused on the target ahead of him, the traitors.

Next time: Punishment fitting the crime