Somewhere over Neighfair…

Another benefit of the augmentations is the near-indestructible skeleton. So if I botch this dive down into the river, at least I won’t need a cast afterwards. At least I kept thinking that while Gramps brought the Vertibuck over the walls of the base. I saw the traces of smoke that the high-explosive shells had left from their impacts on the beach and walls.

“You know if they have anti aircraft guns on that ship?” Gramps yelled from the cockpit.

“No idea.” I replied. “When the Chicacolt was built Airships were incredibly primitive. At most they were large canvas sacks filled with helium that had wooden baskets slung beneath them. Sure you might have had Griffins buzzing around, but unless my history is off Griffany was an isolationist nation until about twenty years ago back home. Safe to say they might have made some retrofits to that old bucket down there, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

“Fair enough, but how do you plan on getting under the ship in one piece? We’re flying around in broad daylight!”

“Buzz their ship.” I replied. “I’ll jump out the side that’s facing away from the ship while you make a flyby at deck level. Odds are good that the raiders on the deck would be too concerned with a vertibuck to pay me much attention.”

“Alright.” I felt the deck beneath me tilt to the left as Gramps banked the Vertibuck around. “But I’m taking the damages out of your allowance!”

“I didn’t know I had one to begin with.” I quipped, watching the river as the Vertibuck grew closer. Soon enough the vertibuck began to level out as it began it’s run down the river towards the ship.

Well, I can’t really call it a run... More like a brisk walking pace. I heard pings against the hull; likely bullets from raiders on the ship. That was my cue to side open the compartment door and expose my eardrums to the pulsing noise of the rotors spinning at an incalculable speed.

“You ready?” Gramps yelled from the cockpit.

“What do you think?” I hollered back.

More bullet strikes rang out around the cabin as the raiders on the Chicacolt started to get their act together. “Alright Dusk, get going!”

As my feet began to leave the deckplates I pulled down my goggles. I managed to get them down just in time to suck in as much air as my lungs could hold, immediately followed by my boots breaking through the surface of the water. By the time my head was beneath the waves the thousands of tiny air bubbles were already rushing past my face in a mad dash towards the surface. I whipped around to face the underside of the old cruiser, kicking up more bubbles as a result of my rapid movement. With the weight of the water around me squeezing on my chest I started paddling towards the hatch.

It was that swishing sound that was my sole companion as the hull of the ship grew larger as I approached. Finally, only ten feet from the hull, I spotted it; the maintenance hatch. I grabbed onto the handle once it came into reach and slowly turned it down, matching the arrows that were cast into the door. It ran through it’s arc rather smoothly for a door that’s likely been submerged in salt water… I tried to tug the door back, and felt it move slightly. But further movement wasn’t very forthcoming.

I planted my boots on the bottom of the ship and pulled against the door. That started to do it, but the door stopped about a quarter of the way open. Well, it’s the best I can get given the circumstances… Slowly I managed to squeeze through the opening and saw the water’s surface only a few inches from me. With one last kick I - Suddenly I felt something catch and I stopped dead. By this point my lungs were starting to burn. I turned around and found my impediment to be a jagged bolt around the edge of the door.

The end of my pants had caught on it, tearing down about two inches before it stopped at the reinforced seam. I tried kicking off the side of the bulkhead to no avail; the seam held fast. With the burning in my lungs growing into a small inferno I began to think. I’m running out of air only inches away from salvation. I finally flicked my knife out of its sheath and leaned down. With one fluid motion I cut around my leg and freed the seam from the rest of my garment. With it now free of the rest of my pants I was able to worm my booted foot through it and get free.

One last kick of the bulkhead sent me rocketing up into the air pocket. I had to force myself to stay calm; gasping for air might draw undue attention. Looking up I saw a ladder that led up to the actual deck. At the top was a water-tight bulkhead snugged up against a rubber gasket with a screw-style handle. I finally dragged myself up the ladder and steadied myself against the door. Before doing anything else I fished out my radio and clicked it on. “Dusk to Neighfair, infiltration successful. Going radio silent.”

I shut off the radio and tucked it back into my bandolier. Glancing down at my pipbuck’s EFS I saw one red dot with an arrow pointing up, indicating the only raider in it’s range was a deck above me. Finally I unscrewed the door and stepped through. By the time I shut it there was water already splashing against the deck. So, with no other option, I slowly screwed the door back down. I glanced down at my pipbuck once I was done and silently groaned at the sight of two red dots on my deck. They grew slightly larger as the seconds ticked by, a likely indicator that they were nearing my position. I looked around and saw a small supply closet that had been left ajar. With no other options I opened it up, clambered in over a pile of cleaning supplies and shut the door behind me. That door stuck with a soft click.

I stayed perfectly still as the two sets of boots made their presence known through the soft echoes that bounced off the walls of the ship.

“You still haven’t given me an answer.” I heard one of the raiders say.

“Ugh, are you still stuck on the pier?” The other groaned.

“No, I went to another subject that we’ve been talking about all day.”

The hallway was quiet for a moment before the raider finally spoke up. “We get caps, guns and roof over our heads. Who cares if the boss is out for revenge?”

“See, that’s what worries me. You weren’t on the Pier when those soldiers came marching in.” The original raider said. “Compared those tanks to this tub? We might as well be bringing a knife to a gunfight. And need I remind you they got into a sealed military base? We’d probably live longer if we just left these guys alone.”

While the two raiders kept up their banter I had slowly snaked my hand down to the holster at my side. With some difficulty I was able to flick the small clip off the top and slide out the small .45 pistol that I had salvaged from the Neighfair storage hangar.

“Wait a minute, what the hell are we doing down here anyway?”

“Smoke break?”

While the two raiders were silent, I could imagine that the other was rolling his eyes. “You go do that.” Immediately I heard a set of boots crossing the deck, eventually fading from earshot.

“Whatever… Still gotta check on the engineer.” That second statement was followed by more footfalls that eventually disappeared in the bowels of the old metal monstrosity.

I pushed open the door of the supply closet and slid off the pile of junk to the deck. A quick doubletake confirmed that I was alone in the corridor, but judging by the raider’s monologuing I’ll be running into someone soon. I wheeled right and headed down the corridor a few yards to an open bulkhead door. I ducked behind the edge of the frame.

I thought for a moment that there wasn’t anyone in the room, but then I heard something. It wasn’t a tool striking the bulkhead, or a shell casing skittering across the floor… But it sounded almost like someone had slugged a bag of sand. I heard that same thud noise another three times before someone started panting. “You have enough yet?” The guts of the ship were quiet for a brief moment as the raider chuckled. “At least you know how to be quiet.”

I wheeled around the corner and leveled my pistol towards the raider. He was standing over a bloody white unicorn… Well, he was at one point judging by the bloody stump of what was his horn. “What can I say? You brutes are good teachers.” That's when the stallion turned his bloody gaze towards me. I froze once I caught it, but it broke very quickly. I holstered my pistol and slid out my knife instead.

“Well I hope we-”

SCHICK!

Slowly I twisted my knife around, stopping as the rotation of the handle was halted by the raider’s ribs. “You need to shut the hell up.” I pulled the knife out and kicked the limp raider to the ground. I turned and knelt down next to the wounded unicorn, helping him sit up.

“Thanks.” The stallion groaned. “Name’s Spark.”

“Dusk.” I replied. In the brief silence that followed I studied Spark’s face. By this point his coat was turning pink from the blood that was slowly running down his face, and it had most certainly lost its shine. “What are you doing down here?”

“Who do you think made this bucket work?” Spark retorted, followed by a small hacking fit which expelled a significant amount of blood onto the deckplates. “The raiders came to our settlement a few months ago. Killed everyone except me, only because I had the ship’s number two boiler in working order when they barged in.”

“So they had you get the other one working and made sure the ship was water tight.”

“You sure you’re not a mindreader?” Spark asked. “Wait, you left out the beatings and torture… So probably not.”

“I’m sorry, but torture?” I know raiders are brutal and all, but since when do they sink to torture as opposed to outright killing?

Spark pulled his shirt back to reveal dark red bandages wrapped around his stomach. “That raider you killed reopened the stitches. About a month ago one of the bosses thought it would be a good idea to show me what my small intestine looks like. Since then they’ve given me small doses of stimpacks and healing potions then busted up the stitches again right away.” Judging by how dark the bandages are I’d say that Spark is onto something… “So tell me Dusk, what are you doing here?”

“Well… Our mutual friends have been taking some pock shots at a military base outside of Chicacolt. And considering I like the place, someone suggested I should send this old piece of junk back to the scrap heap.”

“And how do you plan on doing that? The raiders will find a bomb down here with relative ease.”

I offered a shrug and pointed at the boilers. “Not if it’s part of the ship.”

“Ah…” Spark muttered. “That's borderline brilliant. So I would assume you know a way to disable the low water alarm?”

“What low water alarm?”

Spark rolled his eyes. “On both boilers there’s a float type control. If the water gets too low in one of the boilers, the firing gear for the affected unit is cut off and an alarm is sounded down here and up on the bridge. Once the alarm goes off there’s a delay timer that kicks in on the firing gear. Lasts about an hour, after which the crownsheet should be cool enough so water can be added to the boiler again safely.”

I mulled over this new revelation momentarily before I got up and walked over to the boiler. “Are the alarm units prone to any issues?”

“Not really.” Spark replied. “The units are both mechanical arms that keep spring loaded buttons from popping up and triggering the alarm. Look, just unbolt the service cover on one of those green boxes above the firedoor. Those are the alarms.”

I made my way over to the main boiler and tried loosening the wingnut that held the cover shut, but had no luck in undoing the old fastener. “Its stuck.”

“Try this, should break up the corrosion.” Spark was leaning against the boiler with a bottle of paint thinner in his hands.

I grabbed the small bottle and poured it on the wingnut, handing it back to Spark as my free hand managed to break the fastener free and spin it off its stud. The service door on the control swung open with ease, revealing the metal arm that went down into a dip tube full of water. “So if the arm gets too far down the tube it can trip the alarm?”

“Exactly.” Said Spark. “At about halfway down, it triggers an autofeeder to add water into the boiler. Stick it all the way up and nothing happens.”

Well that’s a starting point. “You have anything I can stick in there to hold the arm up?”

“You got a loaded gun. Stick one of the bullets between the edge of the diptube and the arm.”

“If you say so.” I muttered. I fished around my ammo pouch and managed to slide one of the .45 rounds out of a spare clip. Sliding it under the mechanism proved a tight fit, but the bullet stayed put and kept the arm well away from the trigger for the autofeeder. With nothing more to do I swung the service cover closed and tied the wingnut back down. “How long until the crown sheet is exposed?”

“Honestly? I don’t have a clue.” Spark replied. “I tested the controls by forcing the arms down, not trying to cause a catastrophic failure.”

Well thats wonderful! “Look, close off the sight glass on this boiler, unbolt the handle and put it back on backwards. If we’re lucky no one will notice this thing run out of water.”

“Well the thing will melt down instead of blowing up. Someone needs to add the water to this thing to get it to go-” Spark stopped and clutched at his bandages before he managed to steady himself on the side of the boiler. “Look, I’ll stay down here and get the boiler to go off. I’ll only slow you down.”

“So I should just leave the innocent stallion down here to get shredded by shrapnel?”

“You shouldn’t waste your time on a dead stallion.” Spark spat. “Besides, the glass is showing at a third. The crownsheet is already showing under a thin layer of water.”

“So by the time everything boils off the sheet will be getting red hot…”

“Exactly.” Spark said. “That glass was at full about five minutes ago. Give it another five and this thing should be ready to pop.”

I offered a curt nod and looked over Spark one last time. “Well, good-”

“Hey, who the hell are you?” I wheeled around to find a raider standing in the bulkhead.

“Spark, do what you have to.” I said. “I’ll keep the raiders busy.”

“You’ll keep me busy?” The raider asked as he pulled out his knife. “How you plan on doing that?”

I pulled my pistol out and aimed it at the raider’s head. “By doing something like this.”

BANG!

***

“Someone kill that fucker already!” A mare’s voice yelled over the ship’s intercom as I ducked under one of her lackey’s right hooks.

“What if I have a problem with that?” I wondered aloud as I jammed my knife through the side of the raider’s ribcage.

“GRAGH! You’ll pay-”

BANG!

I rolled my eyes as the raider slumped to the deck with a bloody stain growing around the hole in his chest. “No I won’t.” I retorted to the empty room. I made my way across the otherwise clean floor to a bulkhead that was open ever slightly enough to allow sunlight to flicker through. I pulled the door open to reveal the upper deck of the ship… And at least a dozen raiders milling around.

“Quick, someone stop the engineer!” I heard the same mare’s voice yell over the loudspeakers. “He’s gonna-”

BOOM!

I felt the deck shudder under my boots as an explosion echoed from the bowels of the ship. I turned around as a cloud of steam and smoke barreled out of the far hallway, engulfing two screaming raiders before the aftermath began to flow into the room. “Dusk to Neighfair, the main boiler is done.” I walked outside and pulled the door shut to keep the clouds away from me as the deck began to slowly rock from side to side. “Now if you guys don’t mind I could use a ride off this bucket.”

“Sit tight Dusk, I’m on my way.” Gramps called out over the radio.

“Hey, who the fuck is that?” One of the raiders asked.

“That fucker has been running around killing my men!” I heard a mare yell from the bridge above me. I sidestepped a growing shadow just in time to see a mare in hulking salvaged power armor slam down onto the deck. “You all stay out of this fight, he’s mine.”

I instinctively pulled my pistol from it’s holster once more and slammed home a fresh clip of ammo. “Ya, what she said!” I yelled out.

“Shut up!” The mare yelled, jumping forward and stomping a foot-sized dent into the deckplates as she missed my own two feet.

“I’m not feeling it.” I retorted. The raider tried to swing a sharp edge to her armor at my head, but I ducked low enough where it sailed past my face without scratching me. “Really, I’m not!”

“I said shut up!” The mare finally swung her leg around and caught my gut. While I didn’t feel anything break, there’ll most certainly be a boot-sized bruise smack-dab in the middle of my chest… And maybe some other cuts and bruises from-

CRACK!

“Ugh…” Well smacking into walls still hurts like hell. I rolled over and managed to click my radio on. “Gramps, I could use that ride.”

“Well if you’d take the cotton out of your ears you might notice the vertibuck coming in.”

I managed to scramble to my feet and duck past another stomp from the Raider Leader, right as a Vertibuck swung down into a hover just feet away from the deck. Before I had a chance I felt someone grab my collar and toss me up into the air, tumbling to a stop at the deck of the ship’s wheelhouse. “Then can I ask for some help?” I sat up and realized something; my pants are soaking wet. “What the fuck?” Well as it turns out I’m sitting in a puddle of water… One that’s slowly growing. “The boiler must’ve put a hole in the hull.”

And judging by the weird angle that the Vertibuck is hovering at I’d say that I might be in line for a swim. “What do you want me to do?”Gramps said over the crackling radio channel.

“You know what? Fuck it, just leave the door open.” I started running across the deck, skidding around the Raider before leaping from the deck and landing head over heels in the Vertibuck’s compartment.

“You good?” Gramps called from the cockpit.

“I should be.” I groaned. The Vertibuck shuddered as it rose away from the surface of the river, making it a bit harder for me to crawl into one of the open jumpseats. Finally the Vertibuck began to bank, giving me the opportunity to roll into a sitting position and steady myself as I started feeling the waves of exhausting crash into me. “Hey, is it a problem if I’m feeling fried?”

“Not really.” Gramps yelled. “When’s the last time you actually slept?”

As I looked out the open compartment door on the dying Chicacolt, missing large pieces of the aft hull and deckplates and spewing clouds of black smoke and steam from the openings, the reality that I haven’t slept well since we first arrived became more apparent. Power naps and high-protein snacks aren’t going to keep me going. But another thought crossed my mind; why did I feel so… Indifferent by letting Spark stay down in the engine room? I just abandoned an innocent stallion to die just so we could blow up a boat. How do I not feel disgusted with myself?

“Dusk, you alright?” Gramps called out.

“Honestly?” I yelled back. “I just don’t know.”

Author's Note

And there's the last chapter in Arc I ladies and gentlemen! Now allow me to make a bit of a note here... Spark's presence on the Chicacolt will be investigated in the early part of Arc II (which will center around Dusk and his grandfather, Meteor Shower), and we'll get some in-universe explanation as to why Dusk was so willing to leave someone to die. I'll be honest, the whole "selfless sacrifice" thing is a bit hard for me to play out in writing. There are writers out there that can do it well but I need to work on it. With that in mind though I think I did an excellent job in capturing the technical aspects of steam technology in this chapter. Bar calling the box a "low water alarm" (which is a real thing) I described the function of a "low water cutoff". So if you have steam heat at home, you most certainly have one of those on the boiler. Maybe there's an autofeeder too but that depends on how old the thing is.

Additionally, in semi-related news, I'm going to start writing some brief summaries of the different chapter arcs. As the arcs come up, that'll be when they see the light of day. Because I'm only deciding to do that now I'm going to try and do the summaries for Arcs I and II. And assuming I have the free money (mind you all I'm a college student) I'll have some cover art done for each arc.

In the meantime, anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker