Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
- 965 All Categories
- 17 Games
- 1 aw2-mapbp
- 365 Richland
- SDHSR
- 4 two-detroits
- 96 aw2e-dvfp
- 53 ISS Tsiolkovsky
- 82 Fury
- Urban Shadows
- 24 LadyB
- 11 AnR
- 4 Junk World 2.0
- 68 PnR
- 23 DRYH
- Jeffland
- The Few
- 11 Other
- 11 General
- 576 Complete
- 12 burning-empires
- 8 aota-jam
- 17 Uncharted Worlds
- Uncharted
- 23 nullptr-veil
- 9 ajax-motw
- 2 tqy-am
- 52 NOVA
- 11 Serene Apocalypse
- jenn-soti
- 63 SWAW
- 13 Blades
- 2 Fall Of Magic
- 12 Generations
- 25 LA Monsters
- tqy
- 32 nupocalypse
- 120 Snowpocalypse
- 136 Junkworld XIII
- 27 Big Maul
- 6 ESC
- 1 Murderous Ghosts
- 17 ANN_pilot
[LB] Leaving Haven (LB 2.2, NB 2.2, CV 2.3, KA 2.3, Sn 2.4)
Haven is quite a bit bigger than picture. Shown for placement)
Captain Vance and Snargle,
You head back to the cockpit and join Snargle. You both see squadrons of biplanes from the Hand of Despair headed towards Haven. The Hand has started returning fire on Haven now, and during the fight and chat with Naomi and Lady Blackbird, over half the air defenses of Haven have been destroyed. The biplanes are dive bombing the docks now, and Snargle, you've witnessed five merchant vessels that have either been harpooned and pulled into the hangars of the Hand of Despair, or shot down. It's a slaughter.
Lady Blackbird,
After the captain left you alone, where did you go? Did you resume your post at the turret now?
Naomi Bishop,
Now that you're healed up, where have you gone?
Kale Arkam,
What's going wrong with The Owl right now?
Suddenly, over the wireless, over loudspeakers from the Hand of Despair, you hear a broadcast. The voice is clipped, in crisp, Imperial fashion :
Comments
I'm still tryin to wrap my noggin around this whole "voidblood" business so that blast of unfriendliness comin from some loudspeaker scares me nearly outta my skin.
I get outta my bunk and slide down the greased up copper rod ta get to the Engine Room quick as I can an check on everythin.
Oh, oh yeah. Forgot I never decoupled all them soft gaskets I soldered up. It was good for speed n spin when we needed it, but iffin we head out to the blue--which I'm hopin is where we're headin as opposed to nother Impy brig--we'd freeze fastern piss on the Port Boreas drydock.
Actually, wait a sec, did that Brass-Beater say "Vance</>?"
Kale's spelling is atrocious, but I can't blame him.
I hold the pearls in my hand, feeling them. Memories of my mother wearing them rush back. I turn to the mirror, and go to put them on, but I can't.
I look about the cabin for some parchment and a pen. With the ship shaking about, my cursive is not at its best.
Captain,
Your mechanic found my mother's pearls for me. I'll make sure to thank him in person.
I request a favor. I know I have asked a lot of you and your crew already, but if for some reason something goes wrong, I want you to hold onto these for me. I want them used to buy my bodyguard her freedom. I promise I will find some way to pay you back...but with the danger we have faced behind us, and ahead of us, I have to take all worse case scenarios into account.
You have my eternal gratitude.
Natasha Syri Blackbird
I nearly ruin my signature when I hear the demands. Did they really have to say kind and beautiful?
I fold the letter around the pearls and leave it on the Captain's desk on the way back to the turrets.
I abandoned the room I share with the lady almost as quickly as the Captain had. I've never been one to laze about, wounded or not, and I'm not about to take up that habit now. Instead, I found my way up to the bridge as I'm not sure where anyone else has got to and that seems as logical a place to go as anywhere.
The announcement, compounded with the news brought by Hecate and resulting fight, puts me in a sour mood. Only imperials would kill so many and ruin a world just to soothe their egos...
"Relation of your's, Captain?"
Cyrus' mouth is curled into a sneer. He seems so lost in shaking rage that Naomi can't quite tell if he's responding to her or if he didn't hear her and just so happens to be answering her question.
"Isiah. My own brother. Here to collect me."
Cyrus looks around the bridge at Snargle and Naomi, clearly thinking weighty thoughts. After a good minute, he opens his mouth and words slowly begin to ease out.
"Snargle, we need to get Bishop and Blackbird someplace safe." He then turns to Naomi. "I'm going to drop you off somewhere with Blackbird. Then I'm going to turn myself in and tell them you escaped days ago. That should buy you some time to get Blackbird to safety."
Snargle looks at Captain Sir. "Tell Snargle where to fly, and Snargle with fly there. But... where is that? And why would Captain Sir not just escape? Snargle is good at escaping!"
Cyrus peers out the window at the carnage below and sighs.
"I know ya can get us out of here, Snargs, but if ya do, nothing is going to stop what's goin' on down there. Maybe if I turn myself in, I can convince 'em they've got no more reason to be pummeling the Haven. That'll buy you all some time to get to safety."
He turns to Naomi. "Bishop... do you know a good place to let you and Blackbird off where you can hide out while this all goes down?"
I probably should be rejoicing, but the Captain turning himself and his crew in sits heavy in my gut. It's got a lot to do with this notion I got that I don't want people getting hurt on my account, but it's also got a little to do with the fact that the Captain here's the lady's best chance of getting where she's trying to go.
"You've got no idea what they'll do to you and your people if you give yourself up." I'm purposefully ignoring his questions, and I'm purposefully keeping my voice low. It sounds more menacing that way. "You won't just be executed. You'll be made examples of. They don't take kindly to folks standing up for themselves. And that's not like to stop 'em neither."
Cyrus keeps staring out that front window. His jaw is set, but his lip is quivering ever so slightly. Not fear, exactly, but not far off... impotent rage?
"They're already making examples of everyone down there. How can I run when I can stop it? Besides, Bishop. It ain't me and my people givin' up. Kale and Snargs can get out with you and Blackbird. It's just me. That's my brother up there doin' this. He'll be so damn happy to gloat at me he'll forget all about everythin' else. You can be halfway to gettin' Blackbird to her Pirate King by the time Isiah's done speechifyin' in my presence."
Cyrus spins on his heels to turn and look at Bishop.
"Unless anyone else has any big ideas on how to get us the hell out of here while also stopping this... this carnage."
He pauses, momentarily, and rolls his tongue through the inside of his mouth, his eyes lighting up with a thought.
"I mean, if we could somehow get 'em to chase us, maybe we could steer 'em right into a fight with a squid, but that'd be too risky."
Snargle doesn't understand how Captain Sir will turn himself in without someone to fly The Owl, but Snargle does understand fancy flying. "Captain Sir, The Owl can keep ahead until we get in range of the tentacles. I... Snargle knows that. But, steering into a Sky Squid's reach... Snargle... ummm. YES, Captain Sir, I can do that! Not too risky at all!"
Shut up, Cap.
I’m standin in the doorway of the gob-pit. I can hear the heart a what goes on in here echoin down to the engine room an I came over cause I couldn’t believe any of what I was hearin. I heard the last of what the Cap said wit my ears n my eyes this time, no denyin it.
Then I’m aware that everyone’s lookin at me an I get itchy. I start shrinkin away, but no. No.
No! Shut up--we ain’t leavin you.
I stomp over to the Cap and point a black finger up at im.
You think it’s safe out there? I bin out there, longer an you even, I mean really out there. Ain’t no safety ta be had. That’s all been scraped up and sold away by the Imps centuries ago.
The safest place I ever put my dusty boots on was the Owl. An it’s only safe cause you make it safe.
I poke him in the chest to en-nun-ci-ate the “you.”
An payment fer that is that I’m gonna keep you safe--the best I can. Don’t matter it’s your brother. Don’t matter if it’s the Empress herself flyin after us on her brass bloody wings--I’m gonna look out for you. And Snargs. And the Lady and Bishop too. No matter what. An surviving when I’m not supposed to is my specialty.
I can’t do none a that if you send us away an go belly up with some notion a tryin to save us. So I guess you can call me a mutineer, but yer stayin on the damn ship. You think them guns is gonna kills us? Nu-uh. It’s letting those damned brass-beaters scare us into handin over what little they hasn’t taken from us yet. An I'd rather be dead then see them take my Captain away!
I catch my breath an look out at the rest of em in the Gob-pit. I puff up my chest to show how intimidatin I can be. Then I turn back an lock eyes with the Cap.
Now. Let’s run the hell away as fast as we can.
I haven't even made it to the guns yet when I hear the mechanic shouting over all the noise. He would make an superb public speaker if he didn't use so much of...whatever that tongue is.
I caught most of the plan, but not all of it. Tentacles was all I my ears really needed. I rush over, holding the walls now and then, only able to keep my balancing from all the dancing. I step into the doorway, into the cockpit. "...you mentioned...luring it into the beak of a Sky Squid?" I hope I am correct, otherwise I probably sound like I've been kissed by one. "I might be able to assist with the avoidance of the Owl getting devoured as well."
It's not a gift most freely admit. I haven't even told Naomi. Those who admit it are outcasted or hung. "...I've been trained by a master of the Sky Song." Uriah sang it so beautifully.
I must say I'm rather impressed by Kale's outburst. I think I have a good measure of the kind of man the Captain is, and that speech will go a lot further than my attempt to sway him with silly things like experience and common sense. I give Kale a slight nod of approval when our eyes meet, and I open my mouth to ask something...then shut it again as the lady makes her entrance.
Hopefully, no one will be stupid enough to tell her the Captain's plan. The first one, that is. It would upset her something fierce. This second plan is much more her style: completely mad and unexpected. And she does love to talk of those things.
Until now, I just hadn't realized why. Sky song, huh? I've heard stories about that. Thought it was just malarkey, to be honest. Leave it to the lady...
"So. Sounds like we got a plan, then. Where do you need me?"
Snargle gives Kale a nod and checks the dials and gauges. "Setting course for the nearest Sky Squid." After a pause, Snargle looks between Captain Sir and Lady Freckles. "Ah, where is the nearest Sky Squid?"
"There's too much commotion. We need to get closer to the fogs." I take Naomi's hand. "I need you to stay here, please. Speaking to them puts you in a trance...makes you think you're one of them. I might try to sleepwalk off the ship, and as everyone knows, the fogs aren't breathable."
I offer the lady a nod and a small smile, grateful that I've something more to do than just stand around and wait.
Alright, so, making sure the lady doesn't walk off the ship is still, technically, standing around and waiting. But it's more of a useful sort.
"You'll be safe with me, my lady."
Cyrus has just been staring, slack jawed, at Kale. Finally, the Captain manages to pull his jaw shut. He turns to Snargle and says "Alright, Snargs. I trust ya. We're going to buzz by them there Imperials and as we do, yer gonna patch me through on the P.A. so I can say somethin' to my dear ol' brother. Then, once we got their attention, we high tail it towards a squid. Kale, you go hit up the nav system and see where you can find the nearest ink-spitter, then report back. Blackbird, you have your song ready. And Bishop? You keep looking like you actually are as tough as I'm pretending to be, because one of us has to keep a stiff upper lip."
Cyrus then turns back to Kale, the slightest hint of a tear in his eye, and he says "Kale's right. I was a fool not to see that. We stick together on this here ship. Cause we're crew." Cyrus composes himself and turns his attention back towards the assembled group. Raising his voice, he shouts "Now let's stick our collective thumb right in the Empire's eye!"
I think you need five successes to pull it off. Folks can help you, if they can tell me how. Failure means something's gone wrong. Something interesting.
Cyrus puts his hand on Snargle's shoulder and leans in.
"Okay Snargs, ol' mate. Ya got this. Yer nothin' if not the best pilot in the blue. No Imperial is even fit ta carry yer lunch pail."
I help Snargle by telling the pilot what I can recall about the Hand of Despair from when I first encountered it with Uriah.
I soak up Cap's words for maybe longer than I shoulda. But when Snargs gets that look in her eye, I run back to the Engine Room. If the starboard vents stayed open we'd get a bit more speed--specially with all that steam reroutin I done up still in effect.
Course, I'll have to hold the vent open myself. Ain't the first dangerous thing I done this week, surely won't be the last as I just recall we're about to fly toward the maw of a sky-squid.
I'm sure Snargle is the best pilot out here, but one goblin can only do so much. "Watch that fighter on the left there. No -- the one behind that one. They've just finished a run and are headed back around. If you keep that one between us, they shouldn't spot us."
With the Captain's hand on Snargle's shoulder, and his words in Snargle's ears, The Owl performs maneuvers that might look like magic to the uninitiated. Darting forward, doing circles around fighters and passing too close to the Hand for that lumbering Imp tub to aim its guns.
1. Doing a thing
2. Pilot
3. Daring
4. Steady
5. Maneuvering
6. Evasion
7. Tricky flying
8. Navigation
9. Captain Sir's encouragement
10. Lady Freckles' knowledge of *The Hand of Despair*
11. Kale's dangerous moves in the engine room
12. Naomi's spotting and tactical assistance
13. Pool
14. Pool
15. Pool
You goose the engines and The Owl hums as Kale feeds her all the steam she can handle and you channel that into pure speed. She takes on all the aspects of a bird of prey, her namesake, as you swoop over the burning docks of Haven, and zip in and out of the firing lines of the squadrons of biplanes that try to molest your approach.
Captain Vance,
Within a score of quick heartbeats, you see the Hand of Despair looming ahead, within range of your wireless. What is it that you tell your dear old brother?
Lady Blackbird,
You sense them, in the Deep Blue, the Sky Squid of legend. They're so close, probably feeding on the remains of those who fall in this epic battle. A frenzy is happening underneath everyone's noses, and you can just imagine it.
What do you do?
"...the Squids. They're right below us." I try to keep my breath steady. Their voracious hunger is mine as well. I can already feel them drawing me in to feast with them. It nearly happened to Uriah, once. His firstmate had tried to use his Ghostblood to counter it, to possess him, but that failed. It took Drabber and half the crew tackling him to the deck to do it. Luckily for myself, Naomi is as strong as a medic and half a crew, and then some.
How you sing is very important. The notes come from the throat, and that is what they use to speak, not words. Uriah could have whole 'conversations' with a Squid of the Sky, but I could only manage small 'phrases'. It will have to do, and I know we will only have a small window of opportunity before the Squids of the Sky decide the Owl looks just as delectable as the rest of the fallen ships.
I am scared. A big ship is after me. Please help.
I keep muttering this to myself, practicing. I think about how the pirate king would sing with me, how our voices would melt together. Oh, Uriah...I have only been focusing on your negatives, when you bear so many qualities that make me want to love you all the more. But, no time for fawning. I must continue with preparing the song.
Vance takes the mic for the P.A. in his hand and clicks the button. It crackles to life with an audible hiss. He puts it to his lips and begins the speech he's wanted to give to his brother his whole life.
"Oh Isiah... are you still mad that ma liked me best? Even tho' you fancied yerself the smart one? The responsible one? I can just hear you, muttering to yourself as yer starin' into the mirror late at night, 'she picked da so what does she know?' I bet it kills you that I got her good looks and you got da's pug little nose. Don't tell me... is that why you went and became an officer? If they pinned some shiny medal on you then maybe you'd be the favorite? But they're both dead Isiah. It's just you and me. And just like back then, I'm the brave one and you're the coward. You got your whole little fleet there, and I've just got this one ship..."
He begins to raise his voice, knowing just how to stick it to his brother...
"But you'll never get me, Isiah! It's just like when we used to race in the alley. I'll always outrun you. And you know what? You're 100% correct. I killed them fancy Imperials. I've got the Lady Blackbird right here! You should see her, Isiah, she's all chained up and screamin' fer you to come rescue her!"
He turns and gives Blackbird a devilish wink.
"So let's see you come get me Isiah! Me and my crew vs. you and your chicken-shit Imperials. Prove you're the best after all these years!"
Cyrus clicks the mic off and turns to Snargs.
"That should get his ego going. I suggest we move. Now!
You pour on the steam and The Owl responds nicely. Something Kale did, she's really riding the currents of air. I assume you're headed towards the Lower Depths?
Two squadrons of biplanes divert their course for The Owl and the entire Hand of Despair starts moving closer, coming within range of their AA guns.
Lady Blackbird,
I'm curious how you're going to call upon the Sky Squid. Why don't you describe how you want to call them, and I'll assign a difficulty for you to call them to your aid, and in time.
This is going to be interesting.
I think convincing a pack of sky squids to help you would need four successes. Failure might mean it doesn't come soon enough, or they ignore you completely.
One tentacle with suckers the size of your view-port shoots out of the gloom and swats aside biplanes like a child tossing blocks that offended them. A huge, monolithic eye appears out of the gloom, rising upwards with the massive head. Biplanes try to veer off, out of the way of the dozen tentacles that suddenly appear in their way.
The largest of the sky squids floats up past The Owl, leaving the safety of the Deep Blue, darting for the Hand of Despair. AA turrets fire on it, but it continues forward with tentacles grasping antennae, pulling itself up onto the hull. And squeezing.
Suddenly, among all the chaos of the moment, the tumult and the horror, The Owl stops moving. Snargle, it's like the engines are cut off out of nowhere. Kale, your gauges are going crazy. The steam engines are still pushing, but the girl, she just aint going.
Then, you all feel a sudden jerk as your ship moves twenty feet straight down. That's when another giant eye appears at the view-port, looking in on you. The metal of the whole ship reverberates as some alien song, the sky song. It sounds not unlike what Lady Blackbird sang moments ago, but with some ethereal quality to it that her throat couldn't quite produce.
The Owl starts sinking further down, down into the blue mists of the Deep, in the unyielding tentacles of the second largest sky squid you've ever seen. The largest is currently latched to the Hand of Despair, which is listing to port, explosions along her hull.
Lady Blackbird, the song the Sky Squid sang to you just now, you pieced together the words.
Little babe, I shall protect you. Worry not. No fear. I will keep you safe.
And the light of the sky disappears as The Owl is drug down into the Lower Depths...--END SCENE--