[Koali] You'll have to get used to that moonshine if you fancy sailing, lad. In this age of air it's a part of your engineer's everyday meal. Sure, you may have heard lots' of them absolutely hate dealing with moonshine on engines. But that's because they love 'em in a mug. I admit, I've occassionally done it. But mostly when I'm not pleased with their work. **He grins, taking a short sip from his glass. His gentlemanly virtue fades a bit with each glass.
"Baronies is where the story begins. Blackcliff, we weren't no nobleman as a family, but father had a good management position in the local metal works. I could've lived as a gentlemen of leisure for the rest of my life after childhood. Well, it wasnt so simple. To my dismay, my family had already arranged me a wife months before I've hit the legal age. I've tried not to mind the fact that she was a lower class plebian or a horrible cook, but the problem here was that I had already laid interest to two fine women far out of her leauge."
**He takes another deep sip from his glass, impatiently dipping it down to continue talking.
"But I say this is far from the point. I wouldn't marry her if I weren't content. However, that would mean to violate the mutual reverence I shared with our family. From what I had seen, my only legitimate escape from this dilemma was enlistment. Baronies have already expanded so far in their land that their only choice was to give up and settle or risk the outside danger and expand further out of the region, towards other states. Obviously, recruiting volunteers was the most cost efficient solution. I've contacted an accomplice I've made who happened to work at Blackcliff just under my father's branch. We had two days until enlistment period was over, and this wasn't a charity, you needed your own ship and arms to serve under the lord's banner. A petty deal indeed, but you know what's a pettier deal? Marrying whoever your family wants."
"So he's gathered his workmates, and in two days they've built a ship completely from scratch. An exact replica of custom, Howard Industries - Series 9 junker. Terrible engines, barely functioning guns. But we weren't looking for quality, we were just lookin' to sign our arses up as soon as we could. We desperately set sail for Lord's Leap and managed to register fifteen minutes before the enlistment line was shut. Fifteen, can you believe it? Honestly, the part I dont believe is how Lord wouldn't open his doors to enlistment at all times. I guess he cared for his army's pride."
"I've picked up a few tricks while that thing was built, had taken up the monkey wrench to be of some help, but despite my say, unpleasant position as the secondary engineer the crew held me in a fairly high regard for where I've came from."
"So next stop, Firnfeld. The fleet was plentiful, but I wouldn't have said the same for snow gear. We were setting sail for, well. As far as we could go, but I've heard Hanat was the real stopping point. Unfortunately, that didn't happen at all. Angleans were there, harrassed us around Snowpeak and forced us to a complete halt. Those things were bloody fierce I say, with every two we focused down, five or so of ours fell off the sky. It wasn't no all-out batte, these guys were guerilla and had an army strength on top of that!"
"Command decided to settle down and take things slow. From that point on, literally every mile we flied was checked firsthand by scout ships. If they never came back ,we either completely avoided the route or investigated with the whole fleet. Our navigator assured the fleet that we were heading for Hanat for sure, but little did we know the destination was actually Qinqaachi. Of course, Angleans, feeling threatened by our advancement towards one of their capital cities, ended up declaring full on war. Bullrushed the main fleet out of our territory. And we, say, "exchanged sorrows" with almost equal numbers. At some point, a lightning strike hit the darn field. And out of all the 20 ships, the commanding vessel of our fleet had the worst of this. And reportedly this strike took out Baron-General of Ravenrook, head honcho of the so called expansion. Rumor has it that this lightning wasn't pure chance, but rather a secret weapon Angleans dug up. Now, I haven't seen it for myself clearly so I can't tell ya' anything about it, but what I can tell you is One: The lightning was pretty, And two: that chaos ensued over our detachment. There was noone our ships could escort around, or charge with. Chain of command, poof. Gone like that. We ended up retreating collectivey in a pretty formation, as if all the captains could read eachother's minds. None of our ships looked pretty after that, hell our junker's engine coupling were damaged beyond repair, and I remember one of the guns falling off the ship at some point.
"And after that, well. Anglean expansion was called off, it was now just another border we had to protect. Now mister, I might have enlisted to escape a life I didn't want, but I didn't sign up for such a boring job. We sold our ship off, two of our folks retired and left their war savings for us, and I bought a Series-five pyramidion just like that. I thought engineerin' was the life until I got ahold of that baby, I tell you.
**His voice having gotten rather dry, he smiles at the men before taking a sip from his moonshine.
"I strayed off the lord's will to become a freelance. Exciting work, at times. Like hunting down kids who could barely fly their gorram' ship and somehow had a good bounty on them. I swear, these yeshans. You make a baby steer their helm a bit and all of 'em lose their minds. Still, good and easy money, what could I have said."
"The story ends here? Yes and no, Since then I've gained and lost many under my command and have a mild reputation to uphold around Guild. I still do send letters to my family however.
"Oh. Speaking of squids, I've found one in the ruins of an anglean town half a year back. Guild offered good money, but I was much more interested in enslaving some angleans to get the thing going. Needless to say, it's been serving me well. Great ship for poking fun at arashi's borders."
**He chuckles, raising his glass towards the fine men standing in the room, "To prosperity and virtue for all, I dare say!" He raises his voice with a bit of a serious tone.
**He then glances by [ShadedExalt],
"What's your name and where you're hailing from, lass? I'm sure your life story isn't all about smearing Spires and landing on balloons. Though I'll call you if I need an acrobat." He pompously remarks to his story.
