Fighting Back
Explanations
Alright, I know some people are probably still wondering what the hell a Soul Collector is & what a Soul Ferrier is. So I'll give you a better explanation than Blitz gave.
Soul Collector: The Pirates of the Spirit World, Soul Collectors typically don't have their own ships to use. Some do, but only high ranking or very experienced ones. 'Management', as it's usually referred to, is their headquarters with-in the gates of Hell. When defeated they return there & are usually punished. If a Collector is captured & escapes they're punished upon their return, unless they can prove themselves before they return (In other words: unless they come back with a boat-load of souls). Collectors also work off a rank system, based on naval ranks. Only officers (Ensign or higher) are allowed to go on Field Missions. A Collector's sole mission (no pun intended) is to Mark as many souls as possible. To accomplish this they have to find a way to kill them. The textbook tactic for this is to first, find a ship. Second, bring onboard something that the crew would want. Third get them to mutiny & kill the passengers (or other crewmembers depending on the type of ship). Finally, kill off the crewmembers. While this isn't the only tactic, it is textbook & considered to be standard for Field Operations. Collectors also gain abilities as they take more souls & get promoted, starting at the rank of Lieutenant. Admirals are the most powerful Collectors, but usually don't concern themselves with field operations, preferring to take command of the few ships of the Collector Fleet. Captains are the most versatile Collectors, doing everything from Field Missions to commanding ships. Captains can also be transferred to another position, usually a Cadre. Collectors, while in fewer numbers, are considered extremely dangerous & typically have a Bounty placed upon them by the 'authorities' of the Spirit World.
Mark: A term used by either a Soul Collector or a Soul Ferrier in reference to placing their emblem on the palm of their victims (in the case of Collectors) or those that they believe may need a moral guide (in the case of Ferriers). Marks also have other purposes, but none are as widely used as these.
Cadre: An Elite of the Devil's forces, with extra training & a great deal of experience.
Collector Fleet: Term used for the total of ships commanded by Soul Collectors.
Bounty: Bounties are placed on both Collectors & Ferriers by the opposing side. The highest bounty for a Soul Collector is 1,000,000 gold pieces for Captain Jack Ferriman. The highest bounty for a Soul Ferrier is of equal value for Captain Blitz Von Krieg.
Captain Jack Ferriman: Nothing is known of Jack Ferriman's past & little about him is known currently. It is known that his surname 'Ferriman' is not only a pun, but an alias as well. His true surname is not known & it is expected that 'Jack' may not be his first name. That remains to be confirmed. His career began centuries ago with disappearances in the Devil's Triangle (Bermuda Triangle) & in the Dragon's Triangle (near Japan). Famous amongst his actions are the disappearance of the Mary Celeste, & the sinkings of the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Irish Maiden, the battleship Hood, the battleship Bismarck, the U.S.S Arizona (while also having a hand in the attack on Pearl Harbor), the U.S.S. Yorktown, the battleship Yamato, countless other war-time & civilian vessels, & most recently the Lorelei. His most recent attack being on the Antonia Graza, but he was thankfully foiled by Captain Blitz Von Krieg. Over the span of his career thus-far he has claimed the souls of upwards of 50,000 people & killed many more. He currently has a bounty of 1,000,000 gold pieces on his head, & is still at large. He hates to lose.
Soul Ferrier: Usually referred to as 'The Navy' –a throwback to their likeness of the British Royal Navy from the 16 & 17 hundreds- by Collectors, Ferriers have a simple job, to transport souls to Fiddler's Green. Unfortunately, their jobs get complicated sometimes. Ferriers are usually attacked en-route to Fiddler's Green. Most everything about Soul Ferriers is similar to Soul Collectors, but there are two to three times as many Ferriers as Collectors. While they are reflexive as a rule, Ferriers also go on the offensive on rare occasions. St. Peter is also associated with the Ferriers, but he is not allowed to outright interfere with the plans of any Collector. He can however, & has before, found ways around this little rule. Ferrier Captains are also similar to their counterparts in the fact that they are transferable to another position, usually to the position of Guardian Angel, or Guardian for short.
Spirit World: Collectors & Ferriers both refer to the state in which they normally exist as the 'Spirit World' due to the fact that in this state only other spirits, & humans that have found a way, can interact or even see them.
Field Missions: Term for a mission of importance that is mean for one person to accomplish on their own, with possible help from those already in the immediate area.
Field Operation: Term for a mission of importance that is given to multiple Collectors or Ferriers that must be accomplished by them within a certain time-span.
Fiddler's Green: The Port-of-Call, fortified harbor, & dry-dock for all Ferriers, & drop-off point for the souls bound for the Elysian Fields. Ferriers are also trained for their duties here, & ships are constantly being repaired. If the Collectors ever captured Fiddler's Green, every Ferrier would be extremely vulnerable & every soul would be in great peril.
Gold Pieces: It's obvious that these are valuable to us, valuable enough to even kill for, but Gold is the standard form of currency for both Collectors & Ferriers, the two sides even use the same value coins, enabling the two sides to trade during truces.
Captain Blitz Von Krieg: Captain Krieg was born in 1589, to a family in the area that would one day become Munich, Germany. In 1609 he & his family moved to London, England & Blitz became infatuated with the sea & went to the docks & shipwright daily. In 1610 his family began going through some hard times, becoming indebted to their landlord. Blitz signed aboard as a deckhand on the HMS Immortal -a ship he'd seen being constructed at the shipwright on the Thames River- to help pay off the debt. It wasn't enough though, & his family was killed, he was spared however, due to the fact that he was in the Royal Navy, in service of the Crown. The ship set sail & only then did he find out how horrible the captain was. The crew was pushed to breaking & Blitz led a mutiny & took the ship. He was a notorious pirate for the next sixty-four years until his death on his birthday in 1674, at the age of 86. On that day, his flagship, the Graza del Grenada, a 40 gun Brig of War & a fleet of four 16 gun sloops were engaged by six 60 gun English Man of Wars in the Windward Passage. The battle was ferocious; every sloop was lost, as were five of the Man of Wars. It was down to Krieg's Brig of War, & the remaining Man of War. The ships blasted one another to bits, Blitz sitting astride a cannon, shouting curses & damnations. The ships closed on one another, grappling lines were thrown across, & a British Marine's bullet grazed Blitz's neck. The crews mixed together on both ships, fighting like hell to take the opposing ship. The other ship's much younger captain came onto Blitz's & upon spotting him, Blitz ran to his cabin & shut the door. The younger man charged in & saw Blitz, his back turned.
"You wouldn't shoot a man in the back, would you?" Blitz asked, hearing the door open.
"Where's the map Captain Krieg?!" the other returned.
"What map?"
"The one to all those riches you've stowed away!"
"You mean, this one?" Blitz asked as he turned, his old brown tattered trench-coat dragging on the floor, to reveal a burning candle, a flaming piece of paper in his hand, & a smirk playing across his aged face.
"No! You old fool!" the captain rushed up to Blitz as he dropped the flaming paper to the ground, it burning away as it touched the ground, & he stabbed Blitz through the heart. Blitz cringed at the severe pain, & slid to the floor as the sword was pulled back out. The younger captain headed for the door, but way halted by Blitz's voice.
"Hey kid!" Blitz shouted, & the addressed spun on his heel. "At least I was smart enough to live to be an old fool." Blitz smirked for the last time in his life as he raised a single shot pistol & laughed as he pulled the trigger, the bullet passing between his target's eyes. "I win." His smirk became a smile as his eyes slid shut, & his muscles relaxed.
Blitz's crew later found the scene after the battle was over. They dumped all of the dead bodies, save Blitz's, onto the Man of War & burned it; then headed for Trinidad. They buried Blitz on the island eight feet down, with a gold doubloon under his tongue, compass in his pocket, pistol in one hand, oar in the other, in his 'uniform', with his Scimitar Cutlass at his hip, as he had requested they would do, no-one the wiser that he'd stashed a copy of the map elsewhere.
When he finally 'woke up' from his body, he was standing above his grave, everything on him where his crew had put it, just as he asked. He slung the oar over his shoulder, & began to walk. After a day or so, he made it to the island's coast, & was halted by a young man, a Soul Collector, though Blitz didn't know this at the time. Blitz cocked an eyebrow & looked the young man up & down as if to say, 'Who the hell are you?' In response the Collector lunged at Blitz, & Blitz just moved ever so slightly to dodge the blow, though that was all he could do, he was still as old as he'd been when he died.
The Collector passed him, & Blitz came around with the oar, smacking the Collector in the head, throwing him to the ground. "Nice to meet you too." Blitz smirked as he aimed his pistol & pulled the trigger, though he was surprised when the Collector went up in a column of flame and a puff of smoke. Blitz had felt as though there was something familiar about the 'demon' he'd just slain –not knowing the proper term at that time- but dismissed it.
An hour or so went by before a ship appeared before Blitz & the Captain came ashore to speak with him. It took some convincing, but Blitz finally went back with the Captain to his ship. Blitz, being an old Sea-Dog as he was, was allowed to stay on deck, & marveled at the ship as it rose out of the water & shot off into the sky.
Upon reaching Fiddler's Green, Captain Krieg was immediately taken to a courthouse in shackles & charged for his crimes in life. The Judge & his peers that sat at the long bench before Blitz could hardly believe how long the list was; it was over ten pages long, & it only included his first sixteen years –for he was going to be charged for each quarter of his career individually. Blitz just looked at their reactions to the list & couldn't help but smile when he though how much this place was like Port Royale. Then he started openly laughing at the looks on their faces.
"What's so funny?" The main Judge asked.
"Oh, nothing much. You just don't have the quick & immediate ability to hang me. Well, then again, you probably do, but I'm already dead so it doesn't matter." Blitz laughed.
"Obviously you know what's on this paper then…"
"Aye, I do. It looks like a little is missing though." He smiled.
"This is the first quarter of your career."
"Oh, that's why it's so thin… That's before I got the hang of it." Blitz shrugged.
"So how do you plead to all of these charges?"
"Uh…" Blitz began, acting as if he were thinking. "Guiltier than you can imagine." Blitz said, a gleam in his eyes as he leaned toward them with a smile.
"For the Lord's sake, let's just send him to Lucifer right now!" another judge shouted.
"Hold your tongue! He's been honest about it at least." Said another.
"The man's proud of it!"
"Are you?" asked the fifth & last judge.
"Of course I am. Those were the best years of my life." Blitz said, as if he'd been sobered from being drunk off his rocker. "I never did anything that I would regret."
"You see! We should send him!"
"I'll hear none of that." Blitz spoke in a commanding tone. "Aye, I've done things; horrible things. I've killed, nay, slaughtered many men in my years. I've burned & sank hundreds, if not thousands of ships. However, I never laid my hands on a woman when she objected, I never purposely killed any woman or child, & I never allowed any of my men to do those things either. What I did was done out of a want for revenge & greed. Can you honestly blame me for wanting to get back at the ones who killed my family? To top that off, yes I got greedy along the way, which is the reason I didn't stop until my death, but greed is human nature. Some just suppress it better than others."
"He's right you know." Came a voice from behind Blitz, but in the shadows.
"What do you want Admiral Charon?" asked the head Judge.
"I want Krieg to come with me." He said as he stepped into the light. He wore a black overcoat, tattered like Blitz's, a grey cotton shirt, brown pants, naval boots, black gloves, & a triangle shaped hat. He had black knotted hair, brown eyes, and a black & grey beard & mustache, the beard looking as if it were there solely because he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. He stood at about Blitz's height –six foot or so-, looked to be about forty five, & had a Rapier sheathed at his hip; a brace of pistols loosely hung from his left shoulder down to his right hip.
"For what purpose?"
"I need another Captain. We just lost one, & I believe Krieg could more than compensate for the loss. All he needs is a ship, & I can fix that easily." Charon said.
"Fine then. Krieg, you're pardoned of your crimes, but you'll be working as a Ferrier."
"Ferrier?" Blitz asked, looking to Charon, rather than the Judge.
"Come with me. I'll explain." Blitz walked over to him, & they turned to leave, Charon resting his arm across Blitz's shoulders as if they were old drinking buddies leaving a pub. As they left, Blitz went from 86 years old, to 21 in a matter of seconds.
"I owe you." Blitz whispered to the man as they walked out. "You still need these?" Blitz asked, pulling the coin out of his mouth.
"Nah… You can keep it." Charon answered, looking at the wet coin.
HMS Immortal:
Sailing Vessel
Type: English Ocean Barque
Past \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Constructed: Thames River, London, 1609
First Voyage: 1610
First Captain: Captain Daniel Kitts
Initial Purpose: Caribbean Military Payroll Courier
Initial Primary Armament: 24 guns. Two 16lb guns on the bow, two 16lb guns on the stern (wheelhouse deck), ten 12lb guns per side (below deck)
Initial Secondary Armament: eighteen 4lb swivel guns -4 at the bow, 4 at the stern, & five per side
Initial Crew: 150
Modifications: copper plating, cotton sails, bronze cannon, fine grain powder, triple hammocks, grape shot, chain shot, cast iron scantlings
Other: Captain Kitts drove the crew to breaking & mid way through the voyage, Blitz led a mutiny against Kitts & ten men loyal to him. They took the ship & rid them selves of Kitts & the five surviving men loyal to him. Deciding that going to the Caribbean would be foolish at the moment, Blitz –now Captain of the Immortal- decided to head to the Orient with the gold that they were supposed to deliver as their first Payroll delivery. After reaching Japan, Blitz hit the Orient hard, taking over one million gold coins, & five hundred thousand gold coins worth of varied goods –everything from spices to silk & diamonds. He took upwards of five hundred ships –burning or sinking near all of them after they had been looted- & returned to the Caribbean after ten years with a fleet of ten ships & a crew of over one thousand. In less than a month, Blitz had turned Trinidad into his own Pirate Haven & based himself out of it. Two years later, in November of 1622, the Immortal -alone, with a crew of only one hundred- was engaged by an English Sixty-Gun Frigate with a crew of four hundred –The Sea Witch- while en route back to Trinidad with a fresh haul of loot. The Sea Witch was fatally wounded when the keel beam cracked. Moments later, the powder magazine caught fire, & the entire ship went up with all hands. Before going down however, the Sea Witch mortally wounded the Immortal & killed half her crew. The holes were patched as best as the remaining crew could, but water was still getting in by the barrel. The crew pumped as fast & as much of the water out as they could, but ten miles out of Trinidad the wind stopped, & a third of the patches burst, causing water to come gushing in. The ship took on an irreversible list to starboard & the order to abandon ship was given. Wanting to not come out of the tragedy empty handed, Blitz ordered that as much weight as possible was to be put on the port side to keep the ship upright long enough for the cargo to be offloaded. In the end, all of the cargo –food, water, cannons, powder, shot, weapons, flags, gold, & various articles of varied value, etc.- was off loaded onto two pinnacles & the Immortal's lifeboats. Fifteen minutes later, the Immortal simultaneously rolled to her starboard & sank by the stern in five hundred feet of water, coming to lay on her keel with a mid list to starboard.
Current \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Captain: Blitz Von Krieg
Purpose: Soul Ferrier
Primary Armament: 50 guns. Six 105mm guns on the bow, six 105mm guns on the stern (wheelhouse deck), nineteen 88mm guns per side (10 below deck, 9 on deck)
Secondary Armament: Sixteen .50 caliber machineguns (4 bow, 4 stern, 4 per side on deck), Twenty Mg-42s (4 bow, 4 stern, 6 per side on deck), Four dual .50 caliber machinegun mounts (2 per side on deck), Two dual 20mm machinegun mounts (on bow), One dual 40mm Bofor mount on stern (wheelhouse deck)
Crew: 300
Modifications: oak heartwood planking, redwood heartwood beams & masts, copper plating, cotton sails, triple hammocks, cast steel scantlings, canister shot, HE rounds (250lb, 500lb, & 1000lb [+2000lb for 105mm), depleted uranium machinegun rounds, video comm.. link, radar, radio, loudspeaker system, Feller Blades, cast gold bell, flack shells (20mm, 40mm, 88mm, 105mm) hydraulic/electric titanium skids, stainless steel reinforcing belt, cutting bow, electric generators, square rigged side lean masts, bow garrison gun ports.
Crew Weapons: Stg-44s, M-1 Grands, Springfield '05 sniper rifles, Winchester Riot Shotguns, Panzerfaust rocket launchers, Thompson SMGs, Colt 45s, Cutlass Scimitars
Other: The Immortal; her Captain & crew have been charged with the transport & protection of all those souls that they can carry, & doing so in the fastest manner possible. Charging ahead into the unknown, this bold Captain, crew, & vessel will stand against all those that would attempt to slow, stow, or smite them. Her speed unmatched, her crew undaunted, & her Captain well seasoned, the newly reinstated 'HMS' Immortal shall now sail the seas, skies & solar winds from below our waves, to beyond our solar system's edge, into the Elysian Port of Fiddler's Green, & back again to save the souls of as many as possible. May Peace be with the souls of the Deceased, & Strength be with their Protectors.
Ferrier Fleet: The total of all Soul Ferrier ships.
Now, one last thing to set up the next story, everyone's ages in this story:
Blitz: (true age) 373 (looks 21)
Jack: (looks like he did in the movie) (true age: N/A (read the sequel once I write it to find out)
Francesca: 25 (hell if I know, she looks like she did in the movie, so she can't be older than 30)
Gregory: 16 (yeah, I know what you're thinking: He's got to be older than that! Well I've know some sixteen year olds that were pretty tall for their age. Just go with it.)
Katie: 12 (that's actually canon)
Complaints? Complements? ANYTHING?! (then review, please?)
-Field Marshal Blitz Von Krieg,
88th Corsairs Commanding Officer
"No Quarter! No Peace!"
REVIEW! I'M ON MY KNEES BEGING HERE!