--Galley--
Reagan caught onto the appraising look her two compatriots were giving each other and sighed.
"I'm missing something here aren't I?" She said quietly as she finished off her sandwich. "I wonder what Amelia is up to at the moment." She said to no one in particular.
--Some Restaurant--
Dahlia smiled at him, "That would be nice, we can talk on the way."
Lorena sighed a breath of relief and saddled him with the bags that simply contained heavy metal components that she would need for maintaining their equipment and skipped out after paying for her meal, that left the two love birds to look at each other, have a shared smile, and left after Dahlia payed for hers.
Lorena was waiting for them outside, "Dad and the others should be back eventually, if you want you can wait with us, maybe check out those howitzers." She gives Dahlia a knowing look before leading them to their warehouse.
--Wreckage of IAS Winthrop--
"You know Cap, I don't think fighting off raiders was in the MO today!"
"I know! Now shut up Richard and kill these bastards!"
The salvage mission was almost complete, they had found the wine with little issue, and had salvaged a good number of items before the raiders had set upon them from the North. On the South side of the wreckage their ship was unharmed, for now at least, if the raiders managed to get through their defense they could, feasibly, strand them in the middle of nowhere, and that didn't appeal to anyone on the crew. Which was why Preston and Travis were currently rigging the ship to explode. Reynold and Phillip were firing down on the raiders with a salvaged gatling and was keeping them down for the most part, though they were running out of ammo and the rifles that Richard and Alex were currently going through the ammo supplies they had brought along like wild fire.
Fire discipline among the Skyrunner's crew however was steady and were downing raiders left and right, there were however quite a lot of them, more than they had ammo for, and while their ship was quite literally meters away, they couldn't make a run for it as the raiders would realize what was going on. And probably run them down, it was probably why they were rigging for remote detonation instead of a timed one.
Up on deck things were going well despite the increasing scarcity of ammo for the gatling, what they had left was currently pooled on the deck next to the gun. Phillip consistently swung the gun across the enemy line, preventing them from moving forward, those that did were cut down by rifle shots from the Captain and Richard who were down a deck. Reynold came back on deck with another can of ammunition and connected the ends of the belt together.
"Phillip," he said calmly despite the ensuing battle. "Why did you have me fetch tape?"
"Because my fingers really hurt." He let go of the trigger for a brief moment before taping it down.
"Ahh, clever. Think my Brother and Preston have finished?"
"Check yourself, I haven't had a chance." He waved a hand in the general direction of the raiders.
Reynold shrugged and walked over to the other side of the ship, Travis was standing at the bottom of their ship's ladder and Preston was climbing up with a coil of cord hanging from his belt.
"Yeah, almost I'd say." Phillip wasn't paying attention and instead was sweeping his gun over the enemy lines again.
He tapped him on the shoulder. "Phillip we should tell the Captain it's time to make a run for it."
"You take over then!" He handed him control of the gun and left.
The fight changed, instead of sweeping over the enemy lines like Phillip had, he had a different strategy in mind, the raiders hadn't come from nowhere and their vehicles were sitting a bit further back, though doubting it could reach that far he gave it a shot and aimed for the nearest truck. It lasted only a few seconds before it burst into flames, drawing more attention to him relieving the beleaguered lower deck. This also had the effect of allowing more raiders through their curtain of fire. Alex sighted down one and fired, the shot slamming into the advancing raiders shoulder and sent him to the ground in agony. He didn't think about it as he sent another round straight through another's kneecap, usually he was better at this entire killing thing. Something crashed behind him and he turned with his rifle up to see Phillip picking himself off the deck.
"Fine day isn't it Captain?" He said.
"If only you consider this lead storm decent weather!" He popped out of cover and sighted in the nearest raider and downed him with a shot to the chest. "Preston finished laying the explosives?"
"He was laying cord to the detonator last we saw."
Alex shrugged and instead of answering tapped Richard on the shoulder and motioned it was time to go. Up on deck Reynold had finished taking out the nearest vehicles and was now sweeping the gun across the enemy lines, hopefully forcing them down long enough for them to make a run for it. Phillip came back on deck and motioned for him to come running.
The raiders decided to stay put, their King having ordered them to hold until the gatling ran out of ammo. Which it inevitably did. Of course he was a smart man and decided to sit before ordering a cadre of his soldiers to enter the ship. He had to give it to those who had held the ship, they were fierce fighters, and clever, which was why they currently weren't storming the ship in anger at having their vehicles destroyed. His personal chariot among them. He watched his soldiers advance slowly, waiting for the fighters on board to rain death upon them, they never did, and he had to wonder if they were dead or if they had decided to run. His question however was answered as the ship burst into flame, showering the cadre of advancing warriors with flaming debris.
"Well, Shit." Said the Raider King.
Reynold climbed onto their ship and watched as the wreckage didn't so much explode as burst into flame. Still, it was spectacular enough he supposed and as they flew away wondered if the wine was really worth the trouble.
