"Careful with the damn drones, i don’t need them sinking when we launch them." a man yelled from the dock.
"Working on it boss but them Hammer Heads are rushing us, they want us to..."
"You do not take orders from the rest of the fleet you take orders from me" said the man, "besides you’re the only ship that doesn't need to be refitted in the fleet".
He was right, the three Hammer Heads had been plagued with faulty computers and mistakes in the ship yard and had become very weak compared to the other ships in the dock. The Arbiter was the exception, it had a brand new drone module and new anti-mortar gun mount on its nose and missile guidance scrambling system to make it almost impossible for a foreskin ship or medium Drac ship to hit them.
A man with a dirty white uniform walked up on the docks, compared to the war academy the dock was rather empty with 2 open slots for fleets. He passed the subs with their flag ship a small gun boat. The Sea Scorpions, with their massive long range missiles ready to sink ships that have more than triple the tons of them without getting hit. He passed the Battle cruisers , Drac ships that had been built from blueprints awarded to them by the forsaken counsel for their work. There shiny thuds ready to strike. then he reached the area of the dock for the fleet called "center force" the three hammer heads sat there, low grade guns and pathetic armor for that hull that not even a long ship would dare set out to sea with, and yet they have done so, the only thing he liked about the fleet of tin cans was that it had its subs replaced with arbiters that launched drones, one of the new ships cost almost 4 full level 10 where houses so there was only one at the moment. That was the one he had been given to captain.
"Captain Bee hive 1 reporting to duty sir" he said as he stood at attention to the man on the dock.
"I see that you’re getting use to the new code name, it shows that you are a good Lerner." he replied. "This ship is real important to me," he continuous, "keep her safe and remember what your orders are"
"Will do commander" bee hive replied. “I’ll take her home even if she has one health point left."
"let’s hope that won’t happen" the commander said, "your first task is to help our Floating fortresses get home, they are in trouble out in sector 172 and need an escort"
"No offense sir but what is our cargo fleet doing in enemy waters?" hive asked
"The Dracs are thinning there cargo transports by the tons of a fleet of Dreadnoughts a day and the factory’s and refineries are sluggish. The Sea Scorpions opened some fleets up and left leaving the Floating Fortress on their own. They were support to escort them but something they claimed to have been a fleet of Missile Cruiser Xs spooked them. That’s why I’m sending you out there to get them back." the commander said.
Hive walked own to the ship where the last drone was being loaded up. "She looks better than them Leviathans I worked on before."
"She is, no mortars to handle and a better anti mortars too. As well as 80 small drones with four in the water at a time as your main defense and offense."
"What’s on the drones?"
Small missile launchers. 2 salvos, better on buildings but can piss off any captain who’s on the reserving end."
"OK sir, ready when you are." one of the crew yelled up from the ship. "Well, time for you to get the cargo home safely and in one peace." the commander said "do not let me down"
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The port was buzzing with activity, the fleet of fishing trawlers had returned and griffons were tackling everything in their path to get the first picks on the fish. From above the activity seemed so insignificant to the patrol of 5 Pegasus in Gold armor.
"See anything that interests you?" one of them said. He was white with a simple brown mane and had a shorter tail and smaller build then the others.
the one in the middle of the formation looked at the smaller colt was grey, larger and had a grey mane and a well caped tail responded, "the only thing that till interest me, dive bomber, is any threat to prince Shining Armor, so keep an eye out for that."
The five Pegasus had been ordered by princes’ celesta herself to keep an eye on this trouble spot where shining armor would be passing by on a ship to canter lot for meetings, princes cadence had to stay behind to watch over the crystal empire.
dive bomber looked back down to the docks to continue the search when a middle size colt that was also white but with had a tan mane and tail asked, "who says that the threat is in the docks sir?"
"What do you mean by that?" the flight leader responded.
"What I mean is that a threat could also be in the water or in the middle of the harbor for all we know, so if we are to maximize our chances at finding a threat before it acts on its intentions, then we should scan the entire harbor and maybe a little outside."
"Good thinking high fly, team change course by 90 degrees south and go till I say otherwise." he ordered. The squadron made a hard right turn and started there search over the water.
"So" dive bomber asked high fly, "think we will find anything?"
"I don’t know" he replied, "part of me wants to find something and stop it but the other part wants to find nothing"
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It had been 5 hours since center force had found the Floating Fortress fleet hiding next to a level 35 commander’s island. They were well on their way back to port, at least the Hammer Heads were. The arbiter was forced to cut its speed to half because the large warships that made up the fleet were slow and unsteady, even the cargo ships had to cut their speed down for them. In the weal house of the arbiter, one of the men was leaning over a cracked radar screen with headphones over his ears that gave a soothing beep when the pinier swiped over the ships of the two fleets. He was starting to nod off when the rhythm of beeps speed up in tempo. Looking at the screen. He saw 5 new dots glowing on the edge of the radar screen.
"Captain, unidentified fleet on radar, and 15 miles off our starboard bow." he said out lowed
Hive walks over to the radar man and looks over his shoulder. "Those look pretty big... too big for any forsaken ship, I want a scout on the bridge with binoculars looking for them."
A smaller man with a blue dirty uniform ran up to the bridge with a pair of binoculars "scout on position sir".
"Good now keep an eye out on our port bow, about 45 digress." Hive got a glance from the scout and other men on the bridge. He pointed off the port bow and yelled "THAT WAY DAMN IT". His tone sent the scout and other men scurrying to start scanning the area.
"Fucking hell, a high ranking captain on a new hip sounded fun but I forgot about all the fucking newbies on it". He said to himself as he sat into an old offense chair that had its weal’s removed and was welded to the deck.
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"Captain, fleets on radar baring 4.5. Degrees off port bow. Identification tags indicate 5 Floating Fortresses, 3 Hammer Heads and 1 Arbiter, 9 ships in all, at least 2 fleets." the radar man said as the spots showed up on the shiny radar screen.
"Anything else?" a rather large man said while sitting in a leather chair.
"Colors indicate that ships belong to commander Enterprise, member of the FILTHY PIRATES alliance from sector 173" he reported.
"Those ships are trespassing, let’s go and give them a warning with black rain shall we?" he said. Which sent the room into an uproar of exiting.
"ETA on the ships is 30 minutes sir" a man at the far side of the room announced.
"I want those ships dead in 34 minutes" he said. He got up from his seat with great effort and walked over to the forward windows. Looking over his flag ship he could see the men preparing for the attack and one signaling the other ships. as he looked over the bow of the Dreadnought X he saw the weapon at his disposal, 4 Assault Mortar D73-Xs, 2 Phalanx Anti-Missile 3, and 2 Hailstorm Anti-Mortar C. His other ships had either Shock wave Mortar D71-Q or D95 Siege Rockets. Making his fleet nearly invincible.
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30 MINUTES LATER
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"GET ANOTHER FUCKING DRONE IN THE WATER NOW!" the captain ordered as another drone was lost to the new threat. The Fortresses had hightailed it out of the area and had made it back to 173, the Hammer Heads wore not so lucky. each missile valley was shot down all drones got torn apart and the Dred Xs had only taken 5 hits out of almost 100 missiles launched. All Hive could see was tracers flying from the Hammer Heads 2 Hailstorm Anti-Mortar As they tried to retreat to safe waters. The Arbiter was out of there range launching drones to try to help the Hammer Heads.
"Captain Look!" one of the men said in disbelief as he pointed to what looked like black rain falling on one of the Hammer Heads as the Anti-Mortars reloaded. Explosion rocked the sea and fires started almost instantly on the ship. With the last of the mortars falling on the ship it buckled in the middle and a volcano of red hot steel and depleted uranium were shot into the sky. As the flames settled over the water the bow and stern of the Hammer Head lifted out of the sea like 2 monsters preforming a dance.
"My god..." was all Hive could get out as the flag ship of his fleet was destroyed in a matter of seconds. “Redirect cores to that wreckage to look for any survivors." he said. The man at the helm looked at him with disbelief "you want us to go into the line of fire just to see if there are any survivors? Did you see what happened???"
"I saw and i know the risks but we have speed on our side boys, now as I said, Change cores to the wreckage"
"Yes sir" was all the helms man said in reply.
The Arbiter was an ant compared to the behemoths clashing all around them. They speed on through the blood soaked oil that now covered the sea in search of anyone who may have survived. No one on the ship heard a thing over the fire until they reached the center where the burning oil was pushed away from by the air escaping the lost ship. In the ring of fire there was a small raft with only 2 men on it. "Life raft dead ahead, cut speed." hive ordered as the rest of the crew looked on in disbelief that someone survived.
One of the men in the raft looked up and started to wave to them. When they arrived to the raft they saw a gruesome sight. The man who waved had lost his other arm and had covered the wound with his shirt to try to stop the bleeding. The other was in far worse shape and was screaming for help, and no one told him to stop because of his state. His entire left side of his body had been burned to a crisp and was a dark black with bubbles still popping on the surfers. "Don’t grab his legs or arms," the one armed man said "his skin will come right off into your hands".
The crew lifted the one armed man off the raft and helped him into the medical room as the onboard drone Crain lifting the raft with the other man still in it. The raft was deflated and was used as a stretcher to move the pour soul it held.
As the raft was placed inside, the anti-mortar gun roared to life as the Dred Xs turned there attention onto them. The other 2 Hammer heads had fallen in a simmer matter and the arbiter was the only one. "GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" hive yelled over the guns. In no time the ship was going at full speed out of the fire and into the next. The second wreck had 3 men in the water who had jumped ship before the mortars hit and dove to avoid the explosion. The third wreckage only had one man who had been burned all over as bad as the one who was with the one armed man. He was lifted with the Crane and carried on a Please of deck to the infirmary.
Now it was time to run. The engines roared to life and they speed off for safe waters. The Dred Xs had locked onto them and started there assault. Most of the mortars had fallen behind them but some got lucky and got them with splash damage "health at 3/4th sir" one of the crew yelled. Then without warning, 4 mortars landed midsection on the ship. "Health down to 1/2 now!" the same crew member yelled. Damage control had gotten out and put out any fire and got 3 injured men to the infirmary. Then, the line of hope came into radar. The line separating 172 and 173. All hope as suddenly diminished as a hole appeared between them and that line. "What the hell is that?" One of the crew yelled in terror
"Looks like a whirlpool but it’s too slow and I don’t think whirlpool glow like that" Hive said. And he was right, the whirlpool was spinning so slowly that a Goliath could have gotten out with speed allow. But something else was pilling them in. they gunned it off to the side but there speed wasn't working anymore, nether was there steering. "Shit were dead in the water" Hive said but the ship was still moving. Then the whirlpool changed from blue to black with white sparkles like stars in it. The ship was going full speed but the engine were not running, the ship soon dipped into the cone and disappeared into the darkness.
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"ALL SHIPS FULL REVERSE!" the large man ordered as he saw his prey fall into the cone. The order was carried out and the engines slowed down to go into reverse but when they stopped they quit. The same problem with all the other ships. No engines, no steering, only the force to the whirlpool to pull them. The men started to clear the deck and some screamed in fear that they would sink just like the arbiter. Nothing worked, all they could do was sit there and wait for the inedible. Then, the large man saw that the whirlpool looked more like a portal in one of his books. "I don’t think we are done here yet boys" he proclaimed. "I think that this is the start of something great". And with that the Dred Xs dove forward into the black cone.
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"I don’t think anything’s out here" Dive Bomber said.
They had left the Harbor and were at the outer limits doing laps in the sky. All they saw were some small schooners and some late fishing trawlers. There were no dark objects in the water or any war ship from any country within 200 miles other than the one that has shining armor on it witch was at about 50 miles to the north.
"Let’s keep looking mate" High Fly said. "You never know when something might happen."
"That’s the kind of thinking I want all the time not only when it involves one of your ideas" the squadron leader said. "I’m going to turn back for lunch, they will have more guards out soon, if any of you want to join me, which you can, then you may."
The 2 other Pegasus looked at each other and followed the captain home. "Well I guess it's just me and you Dive Bomber" High Fly said.
"Maybe not High Fly, I’m kind of hungry myself and my wings need some rest, I’ll see you around". He turned to start following the captain when High Fly grabbed his tail and pulled him back.
"What do you think that is?" he asked pointing to a small cone in the water that grew in size. Soon it was large enough to fit a good size ship inside. Then an object sailed out of it, about the size of a trawler and had a black hull with a shiny blue orb rotating on the back.
"I think this is important enough to get the captain back here, don’t you?" High Fly asked Dive Bomber but he was already racing off to get him. "Hold on I’m coming! High Fly said as he sped off after his friend.
Author's Note
First story so try to be gentle on the constructive criticism and any criticism that is non-constructive will be ignored.
The sun shone brightly as the lone arbiter sat in the water. The crew getting off the floor after they got knocked over during their trip in the portal. Hive started to stand up, putting one hand on the table in front of him for support he slowly got to his feet to find that almost all of the other men in the wheelhouse hadn't even tried to get up.
"Oh for crying out lowed, all of you land lovers get to your feet now." he said in a commanding voice. Witch got some of the men up to their feet. The rest stayed on the ground, some had been knocked out while others started to try to find there foot placement so they wouldn't fall again. One of the men sat there, as if he was about to fall asleep, lazily said "five more minutes..."
Hive walked over to him, bent over the sailor who was the spotter who didn't know his port from his starboard, and simply said, "well then if you want to sleep then why don’t you wait till your shift ends or we will pick you up and throw you over the bow so that we run you over and the propellers turn you into shark food."
The sailor looked up at Hive and gave a slight chuckle and laid back down ignoring his commanding officer. Looking down, displease, Hive looked over to his second in command, List, no one knew his real name so they called him List because he had been through every cores at the war academy, even for the proto nemesis.
"Hey List come over here and help me out here." he called out.
List walked over and asked "what can I um... do for you sir?"
"Grab his ankles I’ll get his arms, he’s going over the bow" Hive said. At herring this the crew member jumped up faster than a mortar when shot off. "I'M UP, I'M UP"
Hive looked at list and nodded signaling that he was done here. At this he walked back to the gang way where he was at before. When List left the room Hive grabbed the look out by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him close.
"If you ever, and I mean ever disobey my orders again then I will have you on the first drone to the Dreadnought Xs. do you understand Me." he said in a low voice. The scout looked at him with fear and nodded quickly. His feet feeling for the floor, hive dropped him back down where he almost fell over again and hurried to his position on deck with his binoculars.
Hive watch him for a moment and turned to a crowed of shocked faces. Apparently they had never seen someone use so much force to get there point across.
"What are you people looking at? Get back to work." him said in his commanding voice. "And oh ya, if any of you pull a stunt like that then there will be no warning"
Hive was walking to his quarters when the other look out yelled out "captain, what are those?"
Hive, who looked down in dismay, started to walk over to the scout. "It better not be a god damn longshi......" his words trailed off as he looked at what seemed to be land.
"Well then it would appear that we are next to someone’s base. But this looks way too big. The forsaken counsel would never let someone have this much land." hive said. The scout, still looking asked "what’s on the shoreline?"
The shoreline had so many tall towers on them that appeared to have nests at the top that had been panted green, but some looked way to thin for a man to climb up.
"I think those are called trees. Other than that you have to ask list" hive said.
"Ask me what?" list said, standing right behind them. Hive looked at list, confused at why he was here. As if reading his thoughts list replied "forgot my book".
"Ok then..., list what do you know about trees?" hive asked.
"Trees are an old world plant, kind of like grass but way bigger and way stronger. They come in many differing kinds and they all drop seeds at a point in the time of year. The nut is normally about an inch in diameter but some range to be about 6 inches like the coconut. Trees were cut down for their wood witch was used to make just about everything including ships because of how well it floated. Wood was somewhat strong but not as strong as meddle or steel and could burn at medium temperature, making a fire on a wood ship disastrous. The largest tree from the old world was called the Red Wood for the reddish tint in the wood and bark. It could reach almost 100 feet tall and it took it 1000s of years to do so." he finished without missing a beat.
Both Hive and the scout looked at him wide eye. Hive was the first to shake his head and said "well there you have it, that’s what a tree is. ”Hive walked back to the corridor but before he disappeared into the ship he said "scout the land, see if you can find any colors or any sign of life. If you find something or something finds you then come get Me." after that, he disappeared into the hull.
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By the time High Fly and Dive Bomber got to their captain he was about to start eating his lunch. When he saw the 2 returning, he nodded and went to start his sandwich. The 2 Pegasus quickly trotted up to him out of berth from the flight back, when the captain saw this he asked, "What? Couldn't get here fast enough for lunch or did you just so happen to see something at the last second?”
Taking heavy breaths as High Fly tried to explain what they saw. "We.... saw.... a black.... ship.... made of steel...."
The captain looked at them with a smile. "Ha, there are no steel ships, steel cant float. Why do you think we use wood?"
"Sir I’m telling you.... there was a steel ship.... that had some sort of..... Rotating orb on the back" Added Dive Bomber, still out of breath.
The captain looked at the two of them. "I swear if this is some kind of joke then I will have you grounded permanently."
"This is not a joke." they said at the same time. Trying to get there point across.
"Ok fine, I’ll take a look, but I was not joking about you getting removed from the guard." the captain finished. The three Pegasus took to the air and started too the black ship.
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Shining Armor stood on the desk of the heavy cruiser that was sent to take him to the canterlot port. It was a fine ship with 5 main turrets that used magic to tear ships apart. 2 on the Baw, 2 on the stern and one in mid ship with 2 long range submerge missile launchers. The ship didn't have a name only a number, "CV-5" or Celestial vessel class 5. Only the really big ships had names, or ships that had done something significant in a battle, but that had almost never happened.
One of the crew trotted up to him, he was in a white uniform with an equally white coat. "We expect to reach canterlot late tomorrow sir" he said. Shining turned to face the private and nodded his head in approval. The sailor saluted him and trotted back to his station.
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"Damage report on fleet." the large man said as he struggled to stand up off the floor. "No extra damage from the trip. Just a disoriented crew". One replied, who was also struggling to give the replay. All 5 Dreadnought Xs had gone through the portal, leaving the captain baffled and confused. Where were they? And what would become of his beloved fleet? And if he survived, then what would commander Shell_Back_Ellet do to him?
"Captain, shall we continue the pursuit of the enemy ship?"
"If you know where it is then yes, but I thought that it..."
"There right in front of us. Not in range but we can still keep going."
"Don’t interrupt me- wait what?"
The crew man was right, the lone Arbiter was on the horizon. With the orb spinning on the back. But there was something else that got the captains eyes.
"Whose base are we next to?"
"No way to know. I don’t see any flags and there is no water on the other side, although I have heard that the things on the shore are trees, which are only found on commander Harlocks Island or Commander SWAGs Island, either way, we are fucked."
"Well then, keep the arbiter in sight but move to deeper waters."
"Yes sir."
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"Captain we have some company coming from our port Baw."
"What do you mean? That’s where the land it. No ship can come to us from over land."
"Well, there not ships, they look like some sort of animal with wings, other than that I have no clue."
The captain put his book down and looked up at the man who gave the report. He gave a huff and got up, "well I guess this counts as something found us, go get list, and tell him that this time I want him to stay on the bridge."
"Yes sir".
Another man raced down almost slamming into the first. "The dreds are back, all 5 ships accounted for."
"Hold the drones until I say otherwise. I’m coming up".
"Yes sir" the second man replied and ran back.
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"So you were telling the truth about that ship," the captain said to Dive bomb and High Fly.
"Let’s see if they are friendly".
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"I want full speed to out run the dreds and see if you can manually aim the anti-mortar if them... List what were they again?"
"Pegasus, Greek mythology, god knows how they got here or how we got here."
"right... Pegasus are not friendly, it would seem that the Dred Xs are just trying to follow us from deeper water, as long as we stay in water too shallow for them, say a small river or canal, then we will be safe from the Dred Xs"
Captain, the "Pegasus" are coming at us"
"Clear the deck. I’ll see if there friendly, as well as keep then in the sights of the anti-mortar, “he said as he looked out the window to the lone gun.
"And if that’s not possible then I will have my revolver on me"
............................................................................................................................................................
"You two stay up here and circle, I’ll take a closer look"
Both dive Bomber and High Fly Looked at each other and then at the captain. Then they saluted and started to circle.
"Ok let’s take a look. “The captain said to himself. He flew down to the side of the ship and landed on metal plating that seemed to have a slightly orange tint that could only be seen from up close. He looked up to see something he did not expect. There were at least 9 tall animals that stood upright looking right at him with wide eyes. One of which had a dirty white uniform with his right limb under a light jacket.
"You must be the captain," he started, "might I ask why you are here?"
The reaction from most was a quick and most likely painful fainting onto the deck as one stared at him with wonder. The one who looked to be the captain had not moved an inch, except that he now had his once hidden limb out of the jacket and had a cylinder with a handle pointing at him.
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Captain Hive drew his revolver when he heard his crew faint, knowing that they would be of no use if a fight broke out. He briefly looked to the anti-mortar gun and saw that the men there only hardened there gaze and had the gun aimed at the thing. He knew that this thing could talk but he didn't want to tell him anything if he were a threat to his crew, or at least the part who hadn't fainted. The thing spoke again in a confused tone "what? Please tell me that you do know how to speak equestreanease."
Hive decided to get the propeller turning in this ship of communication. "We speak English but from what you have said it would seem that both languages are the same."
"There we go, got something out of you, now might you have a name?" it asked.
"My code name is Bee Hive One but most just call me Hive. As for my real name I’m afraid I can’t tell you in front of the crew." Hive replied, he had lower the revolver back into the holder but kept his hand on it just in case.
"Ok Hive, My name is captain steel wing. Some of my ponies were on patrol when they saw you and came to get me." Steel Wing replied.
"Ok, would those be the "ponies that saw us? “Hive said as he pointed to the two circling the ship.
"Yes, that would be them, the main reason we came was to see if you were a threat to us." Steel replied "are you?"
"Well that would depend on what your biggest ship is. And the commander doesn't really attack others for no reason."
"Well... the biggest Ship we have would be the... Equestrian class Battleships if I do recall. Or was it the Canterlot class Battleships..."
"Battleships? Well then we won’t attack, if you attack us then we would rather run then stay and fight." Hive replied. He didn't like where this was going.
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"Ok that’s good to know, now on another order of business I need you to change course by 90 degrees to starboard, we need these waters clear for a ship that has royalty on it" steel wing said. He liked the fact that they would rather run then fight, it meant less problems.
"That’s a no can do there Steel Wing"
"What? why not?"
"Let me show you" Hive said and motioned him to follow.
They went through the wheel house where most of the crew were still out cold with one trying to wake them up. They went to the other side of the ship and Hive pointed to 5 small black dots on the horizon. "What are those?"
"Those my friend, are Dreadnought Xs, the most powerful ship in the world, that vary fleet destroyed the rest of ours and has moved to deeper waters so they don’t run aground. They are the ones you want to worry about." Hive said
"Why should we worry about them?"
"There captain will attack anything for fun, and with its strength they can take down a strong fleet."
"Ok so open water is out of the question... how about we take you back to port, it should be safe there. The closest one is back the way you came."
"Ok Steel, but I have a question." hive asked.
"What would it be?"
"Who’s the dumb ass on that ship?" Hive asked as he pointed to a Heavy Curser with the markings "CV-5"on the Baw.
"Oh horse apples, that’s the ship we have to keep safe."
"Well there heading straight for the Dreadnought Xs." Hive noted
"Uh-oh"
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"Captain, lone ship baring off the Baw and coming at us" one of the crew members reported.
"How fast is it?"
"Not all that fast, her speed was only 12 last I saw, also looked to have 5 thud canons on her deck"
"Hmmm... let’s give the mortar teams some training on it shall we?"
"Yes sir"
Author's Note
New chapter and the plot thickens. (not the clopfic plot you dirty minds)
next chapter might come out later next month or so.
