Uncharted Skies

[Carn]

Kibeth

Soon, the crippled Squid is torn asunder.

"Take that you shites!"

Evidently they couldn't, but another Squid appears and sprays the deck of Kibeth with gatling fire.

"James! Lay some mines then get to the hull!"

"Aye!"

Maneuvering down and out, Alister blasts tar into the engines, followed by the "THWUMP!" of the mine launcher.  Seeing the enemy briefly fall back, Alister notices the planes taking fire.

"LADS I HAVE AN IDEA!"

"Oh no..."

"I hate it,"

"When he gets ideas!"

With the manic grin he's known for, Alister guns the ship into a rapid dive, left hand hovering over the additional lever on his helm.

"SPRAY THE CARAVAN, AND PREPARE. FOR HYDROGEN IN TEN SECONDS!"

[BdrLineAzn]

Raider Caravan

Quickly recovering from the bombing run, the Raider Leader looks at the three burning trucks.

"Gonna take more than that!" he yells out towards the sky.

"Boss." one of his men nudges him as he points to the Squid duel. Looking up he sees that his first Squid has been torn apart, but he sees the crew bail out over the transport as the wreckage impacts the top deck. Then a cloud of smoke appears as the enemy dumps tar and damages his second Squid.

"Hmm, tell the second one to bug off and land on the transport, we need to help our guys."

"And the other one?"

"Get the rest of the trucks moving and in a honeycomb formation. Load burst rounds in all of the 88s. We'll have a surprise for that Squid."

"Run and gun?"

"Excatly."

Gunnery Deck, Starboard

After seeing Ulric's charge, Courage can't help as it reminds him of several captains he know that does crazy stunts like that. But his focus is back at the current battle as a Hawacha barrage impact the hull between his gun and the next.

"Flak, someone load me some Charge Rounds! We need to take this sucker out!"

With two of the crew members complying, they both start to lift the round, but they and the round drop onto the floor as a massive crash is heard above. Holding on tight to the controls, Courage rattles in his seat as the transport tilts over the side.

"The hell."

Over the sirens, a panicked voice is heard, "Fire on the Weather Deck, several injured and we are b....."

The message is cut short as a rifle report is heard followed by a thud.

Grinding his teeth, Courage jumps out of the turrent and unslings his carbine.

"Someone keep firing that thing. Five of you come with me, we got to get ride of some pests."

Tranquility

Steadying the helm, Renard bits his lips as to fight his wounds ealier from the explosion. Heading towards the port side of the transport, he notices that none of the main guns are firing and that the caravan group is in a wide spread formation heading Southeast while still firing.

With a hand on the radio he calls in the Bridge, "This is the Tranquility I see the group heading SE, I suggest turning 15 degrees starboard to fire some of the guns."

Bridge

Calming himself, Frey silently takes all the incoming reports in. Trying to decide a course of action with Reagan, one of the reports made him look up.

"Sir, Ma'am, the fire from the Hanger Bay has spread and has now entered into the Engineering spaces. Damage control teams needed." reports Banning.

"I'll go organise a team." says Frey.

"Sir?" Banning gives a questioning look knowing the Commander's current physical demeanour.

"Once the fire has been contained, I have knowledge of this ship's propulsion machinery that I can help expedite the repairs. Now assemble a team to meet me by the Galley."

[Carn]

Kibeth

One hundred feet above, and in front of the caravan, a scream rips from Alister's throat as he looses all four bombs, each weighing in at 250 pounds. Half a heartbeat later he sends hydrogen to his balloon, avoiding crashing into the earth below. Cutting of the screaming, Alister circles around, looking at the carnage wrought below and determining his next course of action.

"Sir!"

It was the engineer on the front gatling, he was pointing at the transport where the second enemy Squid is in the process of disgorging boarders.

"JAMES, JOHN! ONE ON THE HULL, THE OTHER ON THE ENGINES! FRONT, STAY ON GAT! PREPARE FOR RAMMING!"

Medbay

After having been thrown around, Alison has decided that she quite dislikes waiting for injured crewmen to make there way to her, and the bridge hasn't responded. So she grabs her wakizashis, and heads up to the weather deck, where she can begin to hear sounds of combat.

[BdrLineAzn]

Raider Caravan

"Gotcha", smirks the Raider Leader as he views the Kibeth in his binoculars. Spread out in a wide hexagon formation, with nine of the trucks forming the tips and the remaining three in a triangle at the center, the formation has already moved from its position driving ahead of the transport and Squid. Giving the order, all twelve batteries focus at the diving Squid as shrapnel rips off several layers of it's armor, smoke becoming visible indicating damage.

From his position in the lead truck, the Raider sees the Squid pull up as it drops four bombs. With the amount of shells fired in the air, two were detonated before hitting the ground, while one hits a truck in the center triangle directly and the other in the ground leaving a sizeable crater. As the Squid circles back towards the transport, the Caravan turns as well continuing to fire t the retreating ship.

Weather Deck

Landing on the deck, the last remaining Squid forms a barrier between the crashed airship and the access to the Weather Deck. With the Squid's starboard gun facing the compartment, they ships crew leaves one to main the Gatling gun while they mop up the rest of the ship's crew members.

Finally reaching the compartment, Courage is about to open the door with his squad, but notices the makeshift bunker and closes the hatch as bullets hit the metal.

Tranquility

Seeing the Squid land and the Caravan moving back to the transport, Renard has a very heav decision on his hand. Before he has anytime, a call on the radio comes through.

"Clear topside, we are coming in with rockets.", cries out Antonio.

Straight off his port, Renard sees the two plane formation unleash a barrage on the parked Squid. Soon an explosion follows as the small craft's balloon explodes and falls onto the deck.

With that problem situated, he then puts his Goldfish to its maximum speed towards the caravan with Hawacha loaded and ready.

[Koali]

Gunnery Deck

"Someone keep firing that thing!"

That was all Koali could make out among the explosions. He quickly jumped to his feet and puffed over to the Typhoon, the claws on his mechanical legs digging into the deck with each step. As he hopped into the turret seat, he remembered one of his earlier voyages.

*Fancy flashback effect*

Though Koali had crewed under several other captains in the past, none were as crazy as this one. This captain insisted on flying an old Goldfish of a design that was several generations out of date. Even worse, he refused to associate with "hip" or "modern" pilots who mounted a Manticore on the front of the ship, and wanted nothing to do with the actual smart, competent crowd that had the sense to mount a Hellhound in that spot. No, this captain thought he looked sharp flying what everyone called a Flakfish.

That captain apparently had some unfinished business with some no-name thugs that decided to chase after him on what looked like two halves of a Squid, crudely split down the middle to create two independent (and highly unstable) fighter ships. Well, though they weren't expert pilots, they knew how to use flamethrowers.

Everything was aflame, and the engines were disabled. The thugs were cocky enough to make a final attack run from straight ahead.

The captain tossed Koali a leather bag stuffed full of paper cartridges. "Gunner! Give'em a taste of this!"

Koali loaded a shell into the cannon, then crammed in about ten of the cartridges behind the shell before closing the breech. He lined up the split Squid in his sights, and as he pulled the trigger, he glanced down at the single word written on the outside of the bag:

Lochnagar.

[Carn]

Weather Deck

Coming to the recently sealed hatch Alison arrives with a blade in one hand and a medkit in the other.

"Anyone need a medic?"

Kibeth

"SOMEBODY GET THE HULL BACK UP!  PREPARE GRAPPLING LINES!"

"WHAT ARE,"

"YOU PLANNING?"

"BOYS, WE ARE GOING TO HOOK OURSELVES TO THE EAGLE, AND CLEAN UP THOSE ROACHES SCUTTLING ON THE SHADOW!"

Waving at the front engineer to come over, Alister asks him,

"Can you fly a Squid?"

Pailing, he nods.

"Good, maintain position while we mop up the scum."

Going over to the nearest rapel harness, Alister straps in, looking back he sees the twins doing the same, albeit with a greenish complexion.

"ON MY MARK! ONE!"

Alister sees friendly fire disintegrate the Squid.

"TWO!"

He still sees a fair number of raiders crawling on the ship, killing who they can.

"THREE! JUMP!"

[Koali]

*Still in Koali's flashback*

The split Squid was obliterated. However, so was the Flakfish. The Typhoon was already heavily damaged, and the recommended load of Lochnagar powder was one paper cartridge (which Koali later discovered when he read the warning on the other side of the bag). Koali was catapulted far off into the distance to land somewhere outside the town of Cathedral, the heat of the blast mildly cooking his skin to a shade of red resembling a rather harsh sunburn. The crazy captain, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. Though he wasn't launched, he fell from the sky with the burning wreckage that was once his pride and joy, only to land on a girder that broke his spine.

*Back to reality*

As Koali loaded a pair of shells into the Typhoon, he looked down at the pouch of Lochnagar cartridges.

Soon, but not now. Not until I can practice.

He took aim toward the caravan and waited for an opening.

[Piemanlives]

--Eagle Squadron, Beta Flight--

"Hey Farris?"

"Yeah?"

After their run against the boarding squid the pair had given the battle a wide berth as they surveyed battle, they convoy was still running against the fleets and filling the air with general bullshit, the Raider Galleon was still up but had taken heavy damage. but so had the transport.

"You still got those rockets on you?"

"Yeah, why, another plan of yours?

"Well I was thinking, since the convoy is still around, maybe we should give them a piece of our minds."

"Antonio, hold off on that thought, we're forming up." Out of nowhere both Kei and Davis rose to meet them, both craft looked a bit worse for wear but Davis was smoking a bit more than anyone would have found comfortable.

"Uh, boss? You're a bit smokey."

"Oh am I?! I HADN'T NOTICED. Well that's beside the point really, we need to take out that gunvoy and fast before it does anymore damage. So, here's the plan. Me and Kei will hit them from the back, once their guns begin tracking us you two will come in from the side and strike them. Hopefully that'll put em out of commission well enough, or at least make em run for the hills... or dunes as it were."

There was a pause.

"Right, so, uh, lets go then?"

--Eagle Squadron, Alpha Flight--

Kei took a position just off Davis' wing as the pair got into position, she watched as Antonio and Farris continued giving the battle a wide berth as they waited for the signal to begin their run.

"Kei we're going to need to spread out a bit if this is going to work. Loosen formation and we'll get this started."

"Alright." The distance between the two of them grew slightly as they entered the final leg of their approach.

Davis let loose the first missile as his voice came over the radio. "Light em up!"

--Raider Convoy--

All their guns were focused on the transport when he heard the sound of engines coming up from their rear.

"Oh they're back again are they." He picked up his radio and contacted the other vehicles, "Hey those pesky flies are back again, teach them a less-" That was when the first missile hit the formation. Though the barrage of missiles wasn't what one would call accurate, the cannon shells easily found their mark. Several of the lead vehicles burst into flame creating instantaneous obstacles, vehicles broke formation in order to avoid the devastating gun fire. The second plane took this opportunity to hunt down the lagging stragglers as it flew over, leaving him to pick up the pieces.

"Get back in formation dammit! Get those guns on them and swat them out of the sky!"

The convoy diminished but still afloat complied, most had taken a hit even if it was minor. He watched with a satisfied smirk as the flaks began turning to fire when he heard another pair of engines coming up on them.

"Shit, what!?"

The lead craft once again led with missiles, acurrately striking the heavier vehicles as it's partner strafed the field taking out several more of his guns. And just like that they were gone.

"Dammit, where did they go."

--Eagle Squadron, Beta flight--

"Alright boss, we up for round two?"

"It's round three, and no, I don't think we need to."

Farris watched as the port side guns finally opened fire, Flak shells and Hwachas impacting the convoy sending it into a frenzy, what remained broke off the attack and scattered.

"Well that's done, now we can- aw shit."

"Is something the matter?" Kei's voice came over the radio as Davis' craft began to slow down.

"Well it seems I'm running on empty, not yet mind you, but I'm out of the fight at least."

"Hey Kei," Farris remembered that the two of them had taken first shift together. "Aren't you running low too?"

"I... Yeah you're right."

"You two land, we'll take things from here, it seems we just have that Galleon and Junker to deal with now anyway."

"Well I'm not one to prevent someone from doing my job if they're offering." Davis said as he and Kei broke formation. "Just keep Antonio from doing something stupid."

"I resent that statement." Antonio came over the radio, slightly annoyed.

Farris chuckled, "You would Antonio."

[Carn]

Weather Deck

After jumping off the Kibeth, Alister unhooks his axe and pulls the snap five feet over the deck. Landing in a combat roll, he begins to carve his way through the raiders, taking out two before the rest turn to look behind where he landed.

"Time to let loose. "

Kibeth

The twins upon seeing Alister jump, finally disgorge the contents of their stomachs. Within seconds the Kibeth passes the drop zone, effectively trapping Alister alone against at least a dozen armed raiders.

Weather Deck

Two raiders close the distance with cutlasses while another circles around drawing his sidearm. The remaining raiders turn to continue their efforts in opening the door Courage sealed.

Batting aside one of the sabres with his axe, Alister draws his revolver and shoots his attacker in the gut.  The second one attempts to slash him in the chest, bouncing off his armor. Spinning, Alister smashes into the man's jaw with a backhand, but before he can do more, the third raider fires his semiautomatic pistol. The bullet takes him in the thigh, just under his armor.

"Seriously?! Either he's a good shot, or ridiculously lucky!"

Alister manages to fire another slug, this time into the second attacker's gut. Before he can position his gun to the third, the man realizes that his first shot was quite effective and puts a few more rounds into Alister's leg.  Falling to the ground, Alister rolls behind a cluster of barrels.

[Koali]

Gunnery Deck

Koali soon tired of waiting for an opening and opted to scan around the battlefield. He soon noticed that Alister was in trouble. He set the arming timer on the shell in the left barrel, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

The shell blasted out of the barrel at high speed, whizzed past Alister, and slammed into the third raider's head, effectively decapitating him. Thankfully, the raider's head wasn't hard enough to cause a premature detonation.

"In about five seconds, that shell is going to make a crater in the ground."

[BdrLineAzn]

Weather Deck

While two of his men hold the door, Courage and the others checks their weapons before making a charge out of the door. While checking his pistol, he sees Alison comes up with her blade drawn.

"Anyone need a medic?"

"In here no, but there maybe several men out there that's need it."

He turns his head to the door as he hears several gun shots, "Now or never."

Cocking his carbine, Courage raises it to his shoulder, "On my mark.....OPEN."

Spinning the wheel that unlatches the door and pushes open, the momentum catches the Raiders by surprises as they stumble backwards avoiding it. With this opening, Courage and two others fires over two rounds each, all hitting and killing the Raiders effectively.

Rushing out of the door, they finally see the carnage that took place. Scattered throughout the entire deck are pieces of what was once the enemy Squids. All that is left now are burning chunks of hull and several able bodied raiders, a few of which are heading towards Carn.

"Find some cover and take em out." orders Coruage as he fires off a round hitting one in the head.

Tranquility

Before even getting into range, Renard has a bird's eye view of the final destruction of the gunvoy. With what ever survivors from that onslaught, they ran off in all directions to escape.

"Finally that is over," he says with a sigh of relief.

The radio then comes to life as Ulric's voice is transmitted, "Heeeeellllp!! We manage to take out the Junker, but the Galleon has us. His rockets damaged our engines and running at the lowest possible speed."

Looking behind him, he notices that both ships are out of the Shadow's gun arcs. Groaning while spinning the helm, the Goldfish makes a quick turn around.

"Watch the engines mates!" Renard yells as he pulls a lever injecting kerosene.

Feeling the sudden blast of wind hitting his face at the sudden change in speed, he manages to be within his Hawacha's gun range. His gunner realising this, he opens fire at the enemy's gun deck, disabling the guns attacking Ulric.

"Thanks for the breather"

"Just repair up and help me," Renard replies. To his gunner, "Load up Burst this time, got to end this for good."

Manuvering his airship above the Galleon to avoid incoming fire if they have fixed their guns, the final click of the weapons is heard and the gun loaded. Deflating his balloon, the Goldfish drops quickly and stops level with the Galleon's hull. An almost blank range shoot, the gunner lets loose and the twin golden lion's mouths open unloading it's payload. With all of its components destroyed, the Galleon is left defenceless as it now starts taking Artemis fire from the now repaired Junker.

"Time to finish this." came a laugh from Ulric.

"Couldn't have said it better than myself." Renard replies as both ships unload.

After several salvos from each ship, the Galleon is scarred black from all the explosions. Wondering how the vessel is still in the air, both ships were ready to fire again until a loud snapping sound is heard. With the stress becoming unbearable, the main mast connecting the heavy ship to its balloon breaks off as the hull speeds towards the ground with what's left of the balloon drifting slower after it.

Hanger Bay

With Alexi leading the damage control, they manage to contain the fire from spreading even further. Even though a few fires are still in the space, they are being dealt with but several crewmen with hoses. With the last few fires being taken care off, Alexi assess the damage. Looking up at the ceiling, he notices that several beams are mangled from the shells that made it through, on the floor countless of equipment is damaged, and scorch marks litter the hanger. Even with all this, the shells didn't manage to penetrate through the ceiling and into the next deck.

As he is about to head over to help move debris, he sees several men go to the plane launching bay and ready the only available hook, where the other three are either damaged or destroyed. Lowering the hook, a few minutes pass and a noticeable strain is seen on the arm. Lifting it up, everyone in the room notice the battle damage on the right wing. The crane operator manuvers the arm and sets the plane down on a clear space while a worker detaches the chain so that it can be used to catch another.

Engineering

As the battle in the skies and Hanger Bay dies down, fire is still raging in the engine spaces. Finally having a team assembled, Frey personally directs the main effort to fight the fire. All members are wearing oxygen masks as these spaces are filled with smoke. Not having the massive doors to vent out the smoke, as soon as the fire spread from the Hnager Bay towards aft of the transport, it didn't take long for the compartments to fill up with the dark clouds.

"Steady men," entourages Frey, "We need to take this out or we will lose propulsion and altitude."

Eden with the thick smoke, he can see and feel the flames of the ongoing fire.

[Koali]

Gunnery Deck

Koali lined up his sights with one of the vehicles in the raiders's caravan, set the arming timers on both shells, and pulled the trigger, sending several pounds of high explosives on a collision course with-

The ground, apparently.

"Ah, crap! Forgot to lead the shot!"

[Carn]

Weather Deck

One of the raiders comes around the barrel and Alister puts a round through his face.  Noticing that his legs is bleeding, he hooks his axe back on to his belt and puts pressure on it.  Hearing Courage and his group begin to fire at the raiders Alister calls out to them.

"So, you boys happen to know where Ms Alison is?"

Having grabbed a pistol off a raider, Alison mentally groans upon hearing Alister. Firing on the move, she begins to work her way to him.

[Piemanlives]

--Bridge, Eagle's Shadow--

"Status report?"

With the raiding vessels universally gone Reagan had set their vessel back on course to the south east, the only issue was the crew was still fighting a number of boarders. Something she was going to deal with sooner rather than later.

"Fighting continues on the top deck, the last of the convoy down below have scattered, hanger crews are working as fast as they can to reclaim our scout wing. The Shadow has sustained heavy damage but the integrity of the vessel remains intact. Expect full repairs in 23 hours if we work around the clock and operational status within 15."

Reagan nodded, "Have Mr. Larson assist the top deck with dealing with boarders if possible."

"Aye Ma'am." Banning returned to his radio as she sighed, What a night. She pulled out the rest of the bottle and downed it before passing the helm back over as she began to make her way topside with whatever idle crew she encountered. A quick stopover at the armory had supplied her with a rifle and she intended to make some use of it. The crew had secured the main hatch to the weather deck and were using it to constantly move the injured out of the battle.

"Right than, lets go!"

With a skip and a hop she was in the middle of things, exchanging fire with raiders was never fun on ones own vessel but it had to be done. She leaned out from behind the stack of crates she had taken cover behind and fired at the nearest exposed raider, taking him through the gut as he attempted to move cover. Courage had taken command over most of the security detachment as they slowly fought forward across the deck. From out of the corner of her eye however she saw Alison cutting her way through to the other side of the deck... To Alister. She sighed and pulled the trigger taking out a raider encroaching on her back.

"Well isn't this great." She motioned to the crewman nearest to her, "Covering fire!"

[ShadedExalt]

Gunnery Deck, Eagle's Shadow:

Upon hearing the first impacts of the shells, and the ship wide call to battle stations, Gaige had been running around the deck barking orders and repairing guns, and occasionally hopping onto an empty Hwacha, filling the sky with a golden cloud of death.  Boarding reports, however, have him sprinting to the stairs to get to the weather deck. 

Weather Deck, Eagle's Shadow:

Finally reaching the top, he pulls his signature revolver's smaller, .45 ACP brother "Jury" from it's holster, and opens the door quietly, rolling into cover before popping up.  Sighting up the raiders, he lets off 3 shots, one blowing a head into mist, and the others punching fist sized holes into chests.  He drops back into cover as the raiders cry out in surprise, peppering his position with gunfire.