Interlude 6

Imperial Protectorate of Staltor.

In flight above the Mask mountain chain.

"Captain? We're gaining on them, but our ward is taking a beating! Your orders?"

Captain Salvan, of the Staltor Protectorate airfleet, frowned as his lieutenant ran over to him.

"We cannot allow these pirates to escape! They boarded a ship under our very eyes!" Salvan looked at the airship, currently with it's stern facing them, firing defiantly with it's rear mounted guns as they closed. He would be the first to admit that he wasn't a good airship officer. Hell, some wouldn't even consider him one at all! He'd gotten his command only because he was a vocal and loyal supporter of the Eris Empire's Protectorate over his homeland, and he was honest enough to admit it. Still, he had been doing all he could to learn, and push came to shove he could lean on the actually competent people, like his lieutenant. "Get us within 500 meters, then swing us to the left, and unleash our broadside."

If nothing else the mountains they were approaching meant they would have to swing in that direction sooner or later.

"Swing to port at 500 meters, aye aye sir!" Salvan winced slightly at his lieutenant's correction, but didn't say anything. At least he seemed to approve of the plan, that was something. "Full broadside as soon as the guns are cleared. I'll transmit the orders."

Salvan nodded, dismissing the lieutenant, and looked at the pirate ship they were pursuing, flinching ever so slightly as another volley of enemy shells detonated on his ship's ward.

The first thing he'd ask those bastards once he had their ship in tatters, or boarded them, would be where the hell they'd found shells...and guns better than his own!

*****

"Persistent, aren't they?" Said captain Sylvia, almost absent mindedly as she gazed at the warship following them, her pointy elven ears twitching slightly as the enemy warship fired back, and half of their shells went wide.

"They are oathbound to at least try to stop us captain. Besides, we did board a civilian ship right under their nose." Answered her lieutenant, Maria.

"We did, didn't we?" Sylvia chuckled. "You know, for all of their vaunted help in securing the Protectorates and preventing lawlessness, the Empire does see to short deal their own 'grateful' new citizens."

Sylvia looked to the side, and Maria shrugged. The human lieutenant was wearing what some would have seen as an antiquated uniform, with a full red tunic, and similarly colored trousers, accompanied by the inevitable tricorn hat, but it had a strangely grounding effect, and the woman radiated a calm authority that soothed even her captain.

Sylvia on the other hand...Her state of dress would have been called scandalous in several nations, at least. Shorts so short they might as well be underwear, and a top that looked like it was going to explode, barely being able to support her chest. She, of course, wore a similar hat to her subordinate, although she was careful to keep a bright, phoenix feather tucked into it. She was the captain after all.

Most people were extremely surprised to see such a strange duo controlling a pirate ship -and the company behind it-, but truth be told it was a natural fit. Sylvia was excellent at convincing people to follow her and invest in their ventures, while Maria provided the more grounded version, with concrete plans, orders, and much needed discipline.

Plus, she was about as asexual as a rock, and that meant that she made an excellent wingman, as there was no chance of her picking up someone Sylvia had her eyes on. And the lieutenant could be relied on to drag the captain off, regardless of the elf's charms, when need be, even if that worthy wasn't alone in her bed that night.

"As bad as their armaments and crew might be, their engines are excellent and they do outmass us three to one ma'am."

Sylvia winced.

"Granted lieutenant, granted." She had been counting on making a clean getaway thanks to her lean vessel's speed, but damn if those docking tower pieces weren't heavy as hell. If she hadn't been planning on pouncing on Pyn the second they made it to Rebirth, and extract compensation in her own way, preferably in bed although a couch would do, she'd have upped her price! "Well, it seems we aren't going to be able to just outspeed them. Get Thrakker on the big gun, and tell him to make it count. We'll turn in...3 minutes I think. 50 degrees to port, let's not splattered on those mountains just yet."

"Aye aye ma'am! Thrakker on the big gun, turn in 3 minutes, 50 degrees port!"

Sylvia nodded as the lieutenant read back her orders, and Maria left at a brisk, purposeful walk to find their gunnery sergeant.

The elf looked at her depart, and then once more behind her, at the ship slowly overtaking them. Most of their shots were still missing, but the lessening distance and their crew's sudden gain in experience -and motivation at having someone shooting at them- were doing wonders for their accuracy. It was still pitiful compared to her crew of course -they'd only missed 3 shots so far, and those had been their ward had been hit, causing the ship to shake an throw off her gunners' aim-, but they were improving nonetheless.

*****

"Sir, we have crossed 500 meters!"

"Good!" Salvan smiled. All in all, it wasn't a particularly nice smile. He might have been given his command because he was politically safe and above all else loyal, but he did volunteer in the first place because he hated pirates, and deep down truly wanted to make his people safer. And today that meant sending those pirates to the gallows, or back to whatever hellhole they crawled out of. "Turn and fire lieutenant!"

"Aye aye sir!"

*****

"They're turning ma'am."

"I can see that." Said Sylvia, gazing at the ponderously turning light cruiser following her. The damned thing appeared to be as manoeuverable as a brick, despite it's impressive top speed, which was exactly why Sylvia had aimed for the mountains, to try and plunge her ships in the peaks and valleys and lose them there.

Unfortunately it seemed that the other ship's captains was uninterested in a prolonged chase.

"Helm, if you could help their gunners to miss us? I do realize that they are already doing it fine on their own in that department, but I think the sheer weight of metal will enable at least some hits. A short dive should do it, don't you think?"

The helmsman smiled, and nodded, before starting to pull levers and buttons on his strange control panel. Normally Sylvia would have just laughed, and told him to dive so the idiots missed, but she'd started getting lessons from Maria in being calm and collected under fire, rather than an overexcited lunatic. Normally she'd have brushed them off, but...there had been other factors involved.

"Diving in..." The helmsman looked up, and Sylvia held up 3 fingers. Then 2. Then 1.

When she folded her index, the cruiser pursuing them disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and their own ship lurched as the propellers were suddenly angled up, pushing the ship downwards, and valves opened in their balloon, causing them to nearly enter free fall for a second, before the ship stabilized once more with a hard lurch.

"Aaaaand...We've gone under their broadside." Said the helmsman, his tone satisfied, as the shells flew over them and finished their trajectory in a nearby mountain, their explosions causing a localized avalanche.

"Thank you helm."

"My pleasure captain." Said the man with a brilliant smile -literally in his case, he'd replaced all of his teeth with gold ones-, before going back to nursing his pile of levers and dials.

"So, what now?" Asked Maria.

"Now? Well we return the favor of course! Helm, hard to port will you?" Sylvia smiled wolfishly. "And prepare to unleash our own broadside!"

*****

The captain's string of curses ended as the enemy vessel began to turn. Salvan might have been furious, but not enough to distract him from what was going on around him. Like his lieutenant worriedly looking at the enemy ship, the vessel itself turning, or the openly admiring looks some of his sailors were giving him after the impressive list of claims he'd made about the pirate ship and it's crew's lineage.

"They're turning."

"Yes sir. Probably to return our broadside."

"Can we dodge it the same way they dodged ours?"

The lieutenant shook his head.

"No sir, I don't think we can. Our ship is too large to be able to do it fast enough. Besides, I doubt our cabling would handle the strain."

The captain sighed.

"Very well then. If they are interested in a broadside duel, we shall give it to them!" He looked at his lieutenant. "They have better guns, and let's face it, more experienced gunners, but ours are learning fast....and our guns outnumber theirs 4 to 1." Their ship, after all, had originally been intended as a ship of the line. Well, technically ship of the wall, but he had learned from the old school, and stacking ships on top of one another instead of making them into a proper line of battle sounded like madness to him, even though it was possible thanks to their ships moving in three dimensions. In any case, the light cruiser had been intended to fight broadside duels, and was armed accordingly. "It should even the odds."

The lieutenant slowly nodded, and they both went back to watching the enemy ship...right as it completed it's turn, and it too disappeared behind a wall of smoke.

*****

"Okay, they're moving from 'persistent idiots' to 'annoyingly stubborn morons.' " Said Sylvia, before coughing slightly. The gunpowder they used wasn't that bad in terms of smoke, especially as it's cloud was stripped away by the rushing air, but it was still annoying as hell to breathe in. Not to mention bad for her health, but she had healing potions for that. "Status on their ward?"

"Still flickering." Calmly said Maria. "One more broadside. Two at the most."

"It better, because I'm not sure we'll still be there in three." Said Sylvia grimly. Their ward had gone down hard a few broadsides ago, and they'd run out of tricks to pull to make the enemy ships miss them. Oh, their crews still sucked, but the cruiser had angled towards them to slowly close the distance, and the mountainside to starboard prevented them from evading. And the light cruiser's superiority in terms of guns and wards was beginning to tell.

Suddenly her ship disappeared behind another cloud of smoke...before lurching as a handful of shells impacted it, ringing like a bell as they detonated on the armor plating. Except for one, which was accompanied by the horrible sound of an explosion tearing through wood and flesh.

"We're hit! Fire amidships, deck 3!"

"Away fire and damage control parties!" Snapped Sylvia, before looking back at her lieutenant, who had her eyes practically glued to the enchanted binoculars they used to estimate the state of their enemy's ward of protection, as well as various enchantments and presence of magical weaponry. "Well?"

"Their ward...collapsed! We're clear!"

"THRAKKER!" Barked out Sylvia. "Let them have it!"

Across the deck, a burly sergeant, who looked so stereotypically like a graying NCO he could have had 'gunny' tattooed on his forehead, smiled, nodded...and pulled the lanyard on his gun.

The 'big gun' on the pirate ship was what the Erisian Imperial Navy would have called a 'Hail Mary Cannon'. Artillerists and artificers had figured out long ago that it was possible to make an enchanted cannon that could handle absolutely ridiculous amounts of gunpowder and giant shells...but would take so long to recharge the runes that prevented the gun from bursting and fully reload that they were effectively single shot weapons during any battle of reasonable length.

They were mostly considered obsolete, mainly because in a prolonged engagement against multiple targets, which was exactly what a ship of the wall was going to face, it simply wasn't worth the tonnage. But for a pirate ship expecting to face at most a single large law enforcement ship...They were definitely worth it. If you had to the gunners to make the shot count.

And Sylvia very much did.

The shell flew through the air, aimed by a veteran gunnery sergeant with decades of experience, and targeted with the precision only rangefinders allowed.

The light cruiser shook...then fell behind, listing to starboard violently, as it's two rearmost starboard propellers exploded in a shower of sparks and debris.

*****

"Hells and damnation!" Swore Salvan as his ship brutally began losing speed, and tilted alarmingly to the right. "Damage report!"

"Sir! 2 of our starboard propellers have been destroyed!"

"Damn it! Can we still catch them?"

The captain looked at his lieutenant, who shook his head.

"Damn them! DAMN THEM!" The captain gritted his teeth, before stepping back and taking a deep breath. "Alright, stabilize the ship. Lower the power of the port propellers or shut them down outright if you have to. If you can keep them within our firing arc, do it." The lieutenant's face was very clear on how likely he thought that was. "I won't blame you if you can't." Softly finished the captain. "Then...then tend to the wounded, give me a damage assessment, and prepare to fall back to base." He looked at the now rapidly shrinking pirate ship. "We've done everything we could."

*****

"We're in the clear! Hell yeah!"

Cries of victory swept the deck of the pirate frigate as the last volley from the light cruiser fell far short of them, and only destroyed a handful of trees on the mountainside, and Sylvia smiled.

"Alright people. Get me a full damage assessment, and prepare to change our flags and pull up our disguise." If nothing else their ship's current appearance would be distributed to all Imperial ships within the day. And while the Empire could be lethargic as hell, and usually viewed their Protectorate with contempt, they had attacked a Protectorate naval vessel. That the Imperial Airfleet couldn't ignore.

A chorus of acknowledgement resounded throughout the ship, and Sylvia looked to the side to her lieutenant as her crew started scurrying about, bringing out false wooden panels to hide their armor plating and make the ship seem larger, as well as a series of flags and a new balloon.

"Well, it looks like it's mission accomplished."

"For now. We still have to get to Rebirth."

"We'll be fine."