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Uncharted Skies

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Carn:
Kibeth

"Kibeth to bridge, we are out of the hangar, and are elevating to flight ceiling and will maintain a holding pattern."

Putting down the radio, Alister brings the Kibeth into the beginnings of a wide circle, and eyes his current crew.  Otto was up by the main engines, surveying the area. The other two were considerably less than professional.  Jimmy, the youngest, practically had a death grip on the front gatling.  Greg, the last one, at least had his spyglass out, though he did not seem to have much experience with it.

We seriously need to get this crew in shape, there's maybe three greenhorns for every vetran, at least!

Brig

Pulling away from the bulkhead, Jasper smiles to his next cell neighbors.

"We seem to have stopped young men, and I have a most clever plan. Now then, in a few minutes, I will call to the guard under a pretense.  He keeps his keys on his left hip, and standing in front of my cell, that is well within your reach.  Follow me so far?"

The brigands nod, silently wondering what this seemingly harmless, scarecrow of a man is in the brig for.

"The rest is simple, we stealthily make our way to the hangar, blend in with the crew, and appropriate a suitable vessel.  I will contact friends of mine on a secure frequency, and we will be free."

One of the inmates raises a hand, unconsciously imitating a schoolboy.

"And if anyone rumbles us?"

An expression comes over Jasper's face.  Something like a smile, but colder, crueler.  And he replies in a whisper,

"Break them, mind, body, and soul."

BdrLineAzn:
Bridge

1300

Hmm weather patterns in the south. If there are any anomalies, maybe we can trace them back. Flak, if it weren't surrounded by that many explosives we can really use them. Good thing they are at the bottom of the la.....

Eyes widening, Frey turns to Allen, "Mr. Allen, who is currently salvaging the sunken section."

Before the elder gentleman can answer, he places a hand onto his headset as a transmission comes in.

"Understood , I'll pass the word." he finishes and looks to the Commander, "Captain Culvin's crew reporting in, says that they have retrieved the light weaponry from the stern and is about to head back up but came across what looks like a safe."

"Tell him to abort and surface, that thing is linked with high explosives. If they are still armed, they can explode and the pressure wave. it creates underwater can kill him and his crew."

Outside they hear a muffled explosion. Rushing to the nearest window, the Bridge crew notices a tall water column formed on the surface before dropping down.

"Any eyes on the Junker or word from its crew?" demands Frey.

"Working on it sir!" Allen replies, "Captain Culvin do you read? Crew of the Fifth Season respond. Anyone, hello."

Weather Deck

"Whoa."
"Jeeze, what set that off."
"Damn."

Was the collective response on deck following the explosion. On the rails, Courage uses his carbine's scope trying to find any semblance of the Junker.

"Hey, don't just stare! We have some guys down there who maybe in trouble. Now I recommend using those eyes and find any trace of them!" he yells at the crowd.

With quick "yes sirs" and "ayes" his current them pull out their own scopes and spy glasses and scan the lake. After several minutes of searching, Theodore notices bubbling in one spot.

"Courage, you may want to take a look." he nudges the man and points in the direction.

Fifth Season

After removing and retrieving the missile launchers, Ulric gives the wreck one final look over and radios in to his crew topside.

"Looks like we are done here. Start reeling me back up."

"Copy captain."

While he waits for his air hose to go tight, Ulric sees a glint of what seems like a lock.

"Hold upm hold up, hold up. Give me some more slack, I think I found something else. Just check in with the Bridge."

Acknowledging him, the crew stops reeling in the air hose and begins giving him more line. Satisfied that his crew have given enough for him to walk the distance, Ulric makes his way. Entering a tight corridor, he bumps into several crates along the way, unknowlingly those crates contains high explosive rounds and the small bump is just enough to arm the timed fuses. Once at the safe, Ulric takes a look at the small metal container.

Must be important. Better take it, thinking to himself as he grabs the box.

As he is about to leave, he hears a small whistle like noise. Perplexed, he follows the sound to one of the crates. Opening it, his pupils dilate as several rounds pins are spinning quickly down.

Running as fast as he can underwater, he picks up the safe and calls in topside.

frantically yelling into his headset, "BOYS! Get the ship moving and pull me up! We got live explosives down here!"

On the Junker, the three man crew scramble as one starts the motor to reel in the air hose, another to the helm starting the ship and getting the balloon on service, and the last on standby to retrieve Culvin.

Still running, Ulric's body is then pulled upward as the motor finally gotten the slack. Holding the safe tightly, he looks up to see how much distance until the surface. As he breaks through, the man waiting pulls him out and onto the lower deck helping remove the helmet.

Gasping for air Ulric turns to him, "Jim, what's the status?"

"Peak has already started to move us and is trying to get the balloon up." he answers.

Trying to get out of the diving suit, the man at the motor comes down.

"Captain need anything?"

"Yeah, Arnold. You take Jim and tie everything down. Once tha is done, help with the balloon, I don't want to be down here when it goes."

Just as he takes the last piece of the suit off, an explosion is heard. Looking over the side, Ulric glimpse the quick red of the explosion and the white pressure wave coming up. Turning over the balloon pump is still not working.

"HOLD ON LADIES AND GENTS." he yells to the three as he hugs the nearest pole. Since Peak already moved the junker from the center of the blast, the energy if they were still there breaks the surface and not the hull. This causes a massive water column to be formed, lifting the smaller airship. Screams can be heard as the crew hold on as they ride it up. Once they reach the top, a feeling of weightlessness comes over them as they immediately begin to decend. Hitting the water, the large volume that brought them up has submerged the Junker several feet under with the force popping the pontoons. Now the weight of the Junker is brining her down.

Holding his breath, Ulric swims towards the balloon and sees all three still on. Wasting no time, he points to the pump and to a lever. Nodding, the combined strength of the four pulling down moves its position and soon the pump starts to run. Exerting much of his breath on the pull, Ulric eyes the balloon as his sight goes in and out. Soon his back hits the deck as there is enough air in to allow the ship to go up.

Breaking the surface, the Junker's balloon is almost full as it hover over the surface. As the four are sprawled across the deck, the radio sputters as it tries to come to life.

"Cain Cul do read? ew of the Fifth Sea pond. Anyone, hello."

Slowly moving towards the radio, Ulric cracks his back and picks up the receiver, "Yeah, we are fine. Just a little hiccup."

"A little hiccup?,replies Alexi instead of the Highlander, "My friend we watched the whole thing from our position."

"Sont worry, we are fine. My crew and I are now heading back."

"Very well, try not to strain your ship then. I'll inform the others" replies Allen.

Smiling, Ulric hangs the receiver and goes to the helm. Leaning back, a slight pop is heard as he tries to crack his back.

Bridge

"Well good news Commander," Allen turning around his chair, "Captain Culvin and his crew survived."

"That's good, and I'm assuming both are heading in."

"Yes."

"Good, well Lord Ansager, look like we have you papers."

C r o w:
''Well... That's a... fortunate event...? I'm surprised no one died actually. You truly have assembled quite the competent crew I see, Mr.Frey.''
Said Emil with a voice with a mixture of surprise and satisfaction.

While Emil and Frey were looking at each other in the eyes, like they were still inspecting each other, Selenia pops in the staring contest.
''Sorry to annoy you Mr., but I found that the Brig was a restricted area, may I ask why? Is someone there being...'' She coughed ''...how can we say... interrogated?''

As she was talking to Frey and by the way she said ''interrogation'' she clearly hinted that she may referring about the intellignce departemnet way of interrogation: torture.

Piemanlives:
--Hanger Bay, Eagle's Shadow--

“Alright lads, clear a space and get ready on those clamps! Bay door opening in 5...”

Hank tuned out the crew chief as he readied on his clamp, watch as the bay doors parted to allow the Fifth Season entry into the vessel, a few scorch mark marred the lower part of it's hull but damage didn't appear to be anything serious, an hour or so with the buffer and a hammer would do the trick. He attached the clamp to the hull as they laid out the hammock they would be using to suspend the balloon as it deflated, after all you couldn't have a balloon independent of the transport floating about in the hold, that was just silly.

“Hey Friedan, help me with this?”

Hank sighed and accepted the rotary chain that had suddenly appeared before him.

“Yeah yeah.” He turned to the other man as he began pulling on his chain, Ewan Carmichael was a short man, older than him as well, the two of them served “Her Lady of Immaculate Engineering” as members of her team, neither of them were entirely sure how most of the experienced engineers ended up there but none of them were complaining, considering the… other engineers that were onboard.

“So Hank man, how're things down in engineering?” He grunted as he began raising his corner of the balloon hammock.

“Eh, same as usual.”

“So the swabbies huh?”

“Yup.”

“Sucks.”

Hank snorted, “Could be worse I guess.” There was a clunk of metal as the hammock locked into place, the crew chief called for the valves to open up as they siphoned off the lifting into the storage tanks off to the side of the hanger. Each ship carried it's own reserve in order to quickly inflate their balloons but anything already in the balloons had to be taken out so there wasn't an excess in the system once the on board tanks were refilled.

“How so?”

“Well,” Hank looked the man up and down… well, mostly just down, “You could've been there.”

“Yeah and showed you up.” Ewan laughed as he saw something behind him, “Hey, Jimmy Jims!”

Hank looked up to Jim Alcott disembarking the ship carrying a rather hefty looking safe, it wasn't large but any engineer worth his salt knew that any solid metal containers were usually heavier than they looked.

“Hey Jimmothy whatcha got there?”

“Uhh, a safe.”

“And?”

The young man looked at both engineers questioningly. “And what?”

Hank raised an eyebrow. “What's in it?”

“Oh,” He paused for a moment thinking. “Papers I think, the Captain wanted me to take this to the bridge so I should probably get going.” He gave both of them a respectful nod as he headed off.

“So Hank man, now what?”

“I suggest we avoid the scout hanger, apparently they went and damaged their craft again.”

“What seriously? Man I'd hate to be around Marie.” Both their eyes were drawn to where the aircraft were being stored, Marie could be seen working up a storm as she tore off damaged plating in front of her assistants who looked borderline terrified.

“Which is why we're heading back to engineering, come on there's still some stuff that needs doing.”

BdrLineAzn:
Hanger Bay

"Not even 2 hours since we fixed your plane," says Marie in a loud manner that almost everyone in the space can hear, "you go out and manage to blow more holes into it."

With a wrench in hand, she unbolts the last screw holding the tail. Behind her, the maintenance team stands back quite a distance as she threw multiple sheets of armor precariously behind her. Clanks and several close calls of being hit by the flying metal are heard. In the back the four watch on as the women continues the operation as she orders for a replacement tail to be brought in.

Whistling and with his hands in his pockets, Antonio slowly backs away while pulling Farris along with him.

"You know, looks like we had a thing todo before we scrambled. Really important thing that Farris and I need to deal with. Isn't that right bud?"

"What do you mean? The last thing you did was prank the hell out of me."

Pulling him closer to him, Antonio whispers, "Do you want to be here while Kei's engine goes crazy and lecture us to death?"

Farris looks at the female who is starting a blowtorch in her hand and shakes his head no.

"Good." To Kei and Davis, "well if you need us, we'll be out finding Courage and take up on that shooting offer."

With a wave, the duo quickly walk to the nearest ladder well out of the space while the remaining two pilots watch on.

"That was one way to say 'we don't want to be here." comments Kei, "If we don't have anything to do at the moment, I'll be in my room if you need me."

Walking off, Davis is about to go before Marie yells out to him, "OH NO YOU DON'T! You broke your plane, you are going to fix it. Now get over here."

Bridge

"Why would we interrogate a bunch of raiders," says Allen overhearing the conversation, "Those four were nothing but wee scoundrels looking for a way to make a quick buck."

Picking up on Selenia's tone, Frey knows exactly what she ment. For the most part, majority of the crew only know the four raiders that were captured ealier. Only a handful of the upper chain and a few accomplices knew of the fifth prisoner.

"Mr. Allen is correct, we don't need that here. Just a bunch of lowly criminals wanting to be transported behind bars. Reason we have it secured so that the crew can focus on their work. Nothing bad can happen anyway, we have it all under control." says Frey.

Brig

"HELP, HELP! We got a man passed out here!" yells someone from inside the Brig.

The single guard posted out side the door quickly enters after herring the plead. There lying on the floor in his cell is Brigs face down and looking away from the bars. Seeing no movement, the guard takes out his keys, open the cell door, and moves towards the body. Kneeling, he waits a few seconds as he tries t feel a pulse.

"Flak," was all he says as there is nothing being felt.

Standing, the guard moves from his position to the radio in the room to call Medical. Reaching for the receiver, he doesn't hear movement coming up behind him. With a quick snap and a crackle, the guard drops dead with his neck broken as a body stand above him.

Dusting off his hands, Jasper picks up the keys from the body and proceeds to unlock the rest of the cells.

"Now time to catch a ride. I believe there should be a ship on standby in the Hanger Bay. Keep to the shadows, don't look suspicious and we will make it put."

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