Aboard the now heavily damaged Royal Yacht of Arendelle, Queen Elsa opened her eyes to a sharp headache in her head. "What happened" she thought out loud.
The last thing she remembered before blacking out was suffocating and curling up into a ball while gunshots, explosions, and cannon fire sounded outside. Opening the door and peeking her head outside before stepping out and standing by the doorframe, Elsa nearly threw up at what she saw. The once pristine and organized oak deck of the Royal yacht was now covered with holes, shrapnel, soot, and blood spatters; The smell of death and ignited gunpowder stuck in the air like napalm; dead and mortally wounded lay scattered across the top deck, manyl groaning in agony.
Out of the corner of her eye, Elsa saw Captain Oaken slowly gain full consciousness with a groan, he then commanded one of the deck hands to do something she couldn't hear; The captain's face was covered with dirt and soot, and as he Turned his head and spotted the Queen out of her armoured cabin, Still holding onto the handrails to balance himself, the captain yelled at the queen in a startled voice.
"YOUR MAJESTY?!" "get back in your cabin, it's not safe out here"
Not used to the blood and gore of battle, Elsa stood blankly in front of her door in shock, with a hand covering her mouth, unable to process the scene in front of her. Her entire body was now completely stiff, like her brain had stopped functioning.
This stiffness did not last long however, as the Queen quickly felt a strong hand grab her hand. And with a small shriek, Elsa found herself dragged back into the safety of her cabin, the door slamming shut behind her with a loud "BANG"
snapping out of her trance, Elsa frantically looked around her surroundings, then at the battle scarred captain, , Elsa said to the captain with a stutter in her voice" O-Oh my God! Captain Oaken, are you alright?" All signs of regality in her voice gone
The captain tried to reassure the monarch with an obviously fake smile. "Tis but a scratch ma'am, I have been through worse. However, I am duty bound to inform you your majesty, that while I personally may be fine, our chances of winning this battle as the odds stand are slim" the captain said with a sad tone in his voice. " We shall fight to the death your Majesty, but nothing short of a miracle could assure us a victory now.
There is some good news though… It appeared that it wasn't only us that have lost consciousness when the mysterious fog engulfed our ships. The captain then pointed out at how all of the other ships have ceased firing on the Royal Yacht, and were continuously sailing to starboard despite the royal yacht now turning hard to port when captain ordered a deckhand to manually turn the rudder from below decks.
The Ship is heavily wounded, your Majesty" said Oaken while blankly pulling out and lighting a cigar. "The strange fog may have bought us some time, and we are pulling away from our attackers, but we're barely doing 5 knots right now and there is little chance of us escaping into the horizon before they wake up and pursue us once again.
The captain concluded his short situation report with a somber tone is his voice and look on his face. He sighed and said, "Your majesty, all I can say is: we'll give our lives to make sure you get out of here alive and back to Arendelle"
By this point, Elsa felt empty, she thought about the blood shed just outside her door and incoming final battle, then she thought about her parents who perished at sea only 4 years earlier and darkly chuckled at the cruel coincidence that her death will also be out on the unforgiving ocean. Elsa had accepted her fate by this point and was now back in her queenly demeanor and decided to directly address the crew of the Royal Yacht for the first and last time
"Captain Oaken" said Queen Elsa in a stoic voice. "Come with me"
The captain and the monarch exited the room and walked onto the open deck side by side, where looks despair, hopelessness, and fear were present on the faces of even the most veteran sailors.
Elsa and captain Oaken walked towards the center of the deck and ordered the Captain to call the crew to attention.
"ATTENTION!" Oaken yelled loudly into a cylindrical loudhailer.
The weary faces of the crew slowly turned towards the origin of that command, those who could slowly marched towards the captain, and Monarch. After a while a significant number of crew members had gathered around them, forming a semi-circle. Elsa then grabbed the metal loudhailer and took a deep breath before speaking in the most regal, yet emphatic voice she could muster.
"Attention crew of the Royal Yacht of Arendelle, this the the queen speaking… Elsa paused for a second thinking of what she wanted to say, all while more and more crewmen were crowded towards her in curiosity. "When we set off on this journey from the docks of Arendelle a month ago, we expected a routine trip… " Elsa sighed and paused yet again. She was supposed to give an inspiring speech but by this point, she was completely at a loss at what to say…
Before she could continue however, A loud bell followed by yell enhanced by a loudhailer could be heard from the top of the crows nest
"SHIP DEAD AHEAD!"
The crew quickly scattered and ran to their designated battle stations while the captain grabbed the loudhailer from Elsa and replied to the crewman at the crows nest.
"IS THE SHIP ONE OF THE ATTACKERS?!" yelled the captain
"NO SIR, IN FACT, I DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO DESCRIBE IT SIR. I THINK YOU SHOULD COME UP HERE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF replied the crewman.
Captain Oaken looked up at the crows nest in contemplation and sighed.
"ALRIGHT I'm COMING UP" he then turned towards Elsa. "stay here your Majesty"
Captain Oaken quickly climbed onto the net ladders and made his way up onto the crows nest perched on the highest mast 200 feet above the sea and greeted the crewman with a salute before getting down to business.
"First thing's first sailor, what's the status of our attackers" asked the captain.
With a dutiful voice, the crewman pointed towards the ship's 180 and said to the captain while handing him his telescope "They've appeared to have woken up and realized that we've slipped away about 5 minutes ago, sir."
Looking through the lenses. Oaken confirmed that all four of the ships had changed their heading and were now once again bearing down on them. He estimated in his head that their attackers will be within firing range of the Yacht in about 15 minutes.
"Shit"
Turning back towards the crewman,Oaken then asked about their potential rescuer
"What about the other ship you've spotted crewman?"
Pointing at another direction in front of the ship the crewman explained. "I've just spotted it a few minutes ago captain, the vessel is about 15 nautical miles away judging by our speed and the time of their appearance from the horizon" the crewman explained.
Captainlooked pointed the telescope towards the mysterious ship. What he saw shook him to the core.
"How in the world?... " said the captain, shock and preplexion in his voice.
The ship was unlike anything he had seen before, it's size dwarfed the royal yacht and any other ship in Arendellian Royal Navy, in fact, it was bigger than anything even the British Royal Navy had in it's arsenal. But the thing that startled him the most was the distinct lack of sails and masts, yet the ship seemed to be travelling faster than any other vessel he had ever seen.
Oaken thought "Maybe it was one of those new fangled steam ships" but quickly dismissed that thought as even steamships would've had sail masts as an auxiliary and there would've been large paddlewheels on it's side; steam engines were slow compared to clipper sailing ships, not to mention extremely unreliable and expensive. it was the reason why only the British and French could afford to take the risk of building them en masse and why Arendelle didn't have a steam ship in it's fleet.
Looking through the telescope once more, captain Oaken could clearly see the outlines of a cannon on the vessel's bow "A Warship!" thought Oaken. He couldn't identify it due to the distance but he could clearly the outline of a flag.
Oaken was skeptical that the ship may be hostile mercenaries or pirates, but then deduced that it was impossible for any mercenary or pirate to afford to a ship of such size and speed.
"We need to get their attention" said Oaken.
Oaken grabbed the loudhailer and pointed it down towards the deck.
"GRAB A HELIOGRAPH AND POINT IT THAT WAY"
"INVERT THE FLAG" Oaken commanded
With his command, a crewman quickly came out with a tripod with a lot of mirrors attached on it and started directing rays of sun at the mysterious ship. Meanwhile, another crewman took all the flags on the ship and started flying them upside down to signal their distress. Meanwhile back on the crows nest Oaken was getting ready to climb back down to the main deck. "Crewman, start signalling that ship and don't stop until I tell you to" said the captain while climbing over the crew's nest and onto the ladder
"Aye captain" The crewman then grabbed 2 signalling flags and started making signals at the mysterious ship.
"Let's hope they'll see us" mumbled captain Oaken while glancing back at their attackers closing in on them then back at the mysterious ship.