Uncharted Skies

[Piemanlives]

--Hanger Break Room--

The two of them watched as the airship captain fell asleep, propped up at the table. Both Kei and Farris stared for a moment before their eyes once again found each other. Kei held up her card hand and Farris responded in kind before the two of them placed their cards down on the table. Kei with a flush and Farris with a two pair.

"Kei you're too lucky at this."

"I know." She said as she pulled together their meager bets.

--Frey's Quarters--

Reagan chuckled darkly at that, "'Escapade' is too mild a term for such a cluster fuck I think. Still-"

She leaned forward from where she was sitting on Frey's desk, left leg over right and elbow on her knees. Her face was one of pensive thought, equally echoed by her entwined fingers.

"The damage to engineering, despite how extensive it is can be repaired using the supplies we have on board. If need be we can machine the parts required down in the workshop. The damage to the hull is the only thing we'd need harbor facilities for and only because I'd rather no stop in the middle of the desert to repair the damage to the outer hull plating. The hanger bay has the requisite equipment to the heavy lifting required to repair damage to the infrastructure though that would dig into our supplies a bit. We can stop at Vyshtorg though I doubt we'll need to call in any favors, just call in some dry dock time in order for the crew to preform repairs while we stock the rest of our supplies."

She went quiet for a few moments to think.

"As for the dead," She continued quietly, "We can't keep them on the ship, if we haven't already throw the raiders overboard. Once we reach Sunder we can offload our own dead and have them transported back to Cathedral."

Her eyes met each and everyone of them as she scanned the room. "If there's nothing else perhaps we should adjourn and get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us."

[BdrLineAzn]

Narrator

With no new discussions, Frey ends his meeting the three quietly exits the room. With a deep yawn, he goes to his radio that is directly connected to the Bridge and relays the orders to drop off the dead at Sunder. Satisfied that it will be met, and the ship already on repairs, Frey changes out of his uniform into his sleepware and let's his eyes close as he slides into bed.

0800, en route to Truth Lake

Medbay

"Ohhhh," groans Renard as he shuffles in his temporary bed.

"Finally, he is awake." says a cheerful Ulric. Writing down a set of instructions to another patient he is working on, he rips it off and gives it to the man before going to Renard.

"What happened?", he asks while slowly trying to sit up. Barely having his head off the pillow, a headache comes in putting him back down.

"Oh no, don't do that. Gonna make Miss Alison angry for someone in your state to be moving."

Giving in, Renard's places a hand on his forehead, "Ok, Ulric just tell me what happened."

"Well from what others have said, you were thrown hard from that explosion in the Hanger Bay. Your crew couldn't believe you flew your ship after that."

"Wait... My ship?"

"You don't remember a thing? I mean you save my ass out there with the Galleon."

"I remember that, it just after clearing the Weather Deck everything is fuzzy."

"Oh, i think that's when it happened. You blacked out after landing and were just going through the motions before doing so."

"That explains it, ugh my head. Got anything for it?"

Going over to a cabinet, Ulric pulls out a pill bottle and shakes out two small tablets. Grabbing a disposable cup, he fills it with water from the sink and goes over to the bedridden man.

"Here, it's gonna fix more that a headache, I'm surprise you don't feel any other pain."

Taking the pills, Renard swallows them and takes a swig from the cup, "Ahh, so what happend since I was out?"

"Hmm," starts Ulric," Well we made it to Sunder around 4 in the morning, on our way now to Truth Lake. We should arrive there by noon. Right now, we are just cruising with Alexi's Galleon out as well as your ship I believe."

"My ship? Why not yours?"

"Don't worry, it's in good hands, besides I'm needed here to help with the injured. Now just relax and think of this as a small vacation."

With a roll of his eyes, Renard watches as Ulric goes off to another patient before the effects of the pills comes in which causes him to go into a deep sleep.

Hanger Bay

With a bandaged left arm, Courage finds himself in front of the four Anvalan planes with their pilots gathered around.

"So why am I here again?" he asks.

"Well we asked around and found out that you were from Anvala." starts Farris.

"We were thinking that since you been around these machines, that maybe you know how to fix them to a degree." finishes Antonio.

"Ok, guys I maybe from the Guard, but the aviation section wasn't my thing. I can help repair them, but I need the schematics."

"Well actually have a copy here," says Kei while holding out a book, "Looks like your people knew what may happen to them, we got the parts as well in the hold."

Taking the book, Courage skims through, "Alright, let's get started then. Starting with that." pointing to Davis' badly damaged wing.

[Piemanlives]

--Hanger Bay--

Davis was many things, relatively smart, a decent pilot, a great shot with a rifle, but as he looked on Courage walk them through the repair cycle of the craft he also realized another thing.

I am one lucky bastard.

On the outside the damage didn't look all that bad, yeah the armor plating was shredded in a number of places but it still looked functional enough to serve in fight. In reality that wasn't the case with a number of the control mechanism jammed in any number of locations and the secondaries damaged in ways they shouldn't be. All in all he should have locked up and crashed but he hadn't and for that he was glad.

"Ok, so, explain this to me."

[Carn]

Alister's Quarters

After having limped to his room the previous night, Alister crashed facedown into his bed and fell into a deep sleep.  Sadly, he woke up in the morning and proceeded to make his way to the galley, still smelling of the battle, and eat breakfast in a severely toned down manner.

Medbay

Having been on her feet through the night, Alison finally manages to get about 10 minutes to herself.  Staring at the blood sample she took from Alister, she looks for any irregularities.

I know they did something, but what?

[BdrLineAzn]

Hanger Bay

While Courage and a few others are dismantling the wing, a cart is being drawn with the replacement parts. Whirring of several cranes goes on in the background as the temporary repairs for the bay is coming to a close, one of them hovers it's hook over the cart ready to lift the replacement.

Untightening a bolt, Courage explains to Davis, "From what I read, it looks like that the hydraulics all interconnect to the main body, towards the yoke and rudder pedals. Once taking a significant amount of damage though, like jamming the mechanism or losing fluid, that section is gone but the place can still function without it."

Those working with him gives a raise eyebrow to the explanation given. Feeling their stares, Courage gives a sigh, "Basically if one wing is damaged, the other wing can still function. Just with the plane's manuvability cut drastically."

"How about if we get hit in the tail" asks Farris while hooking the replacement wing to the crane.

Scratching his chin, Courage opens the book and starts flipping through the many pages, "I think there maybe a way to switch it to the ailerons, but just assume you are done and be ready to bail out."

"That's reassuring."

Tranquility

"Sure you'll be alright in the air?", asks a skeptical Alexi.

Carefully manning the helm with his slinger arm, Frey picks up the receiver with his free one and answers back, "Don't worry about me Captain Kasporov, you and I know that we both been through much worse. I just wish I flying a Squid, but a Goldfish shall do."

"Very well Commander.", a hearty laugh comes through, "Hopefully my engines can handle being out in the field after what happned the last time."

"Hopefull. Now if you pardon me, I'll check in with the Bridge."

Switching the frequencies, static comes through the radio as Frey turns the dial. Once he sets the Bridge's signal, a clear steady tone can be heard.

"Eagle's Shadow, Commander Frey on the Tranquility reporting."

"Morning Commander", says Belle, "Can you hold, I'm currently getting turned over. Mr. Allen will be on soon."

"Understood Ms. Belle."

After a few more minutes of silence, a man's voice comes in. "Top of the morning Commander," he says in an Eastern Ridge Highland accent, "Sorry for the inconvenience, but you are clear."

"No worries Mr. Allen, just reporting that skies are clear and that Captain Kasporov and I are continuing ahead."

"Copy that, I relay this."

Medbay

Whistling, Ulric places several blood bags back into a cabinet and notices the vial that Alison is holding. Adjusting his glasses, he squints at the coloration and his mouth forms an o.

"Ohhhh, what is this I see. Is that some new disease that we haven't seen at all. Maybe it's some fatty blood from the yellow puss I see. You know fat in the blood stream is bad, especially a lot of it. Could clog your arteries. Ooooorrrrr, is that a health portion. Can I help Miss Alison, you know I have a hand in this type of field."

[Carn]

Medbay

"Ulric, I actually could use your help with this.  I took this from Mr Carn while he was unconscious.  I'm sure your aware, he was in the Anglean's Marauder program.  That particular unit at times, experimented.  Alister has berserker tendencies, and freakish strength.  Have you seen his armor?  It is tungsten plating over kevlar!  And he wears it all day!  It wouldn't surprise me if they laced his food with a chemical, in some super soldier attempt...."

She looks at him, dead in the eye.

"I knew him several years, and he had a steady rise in physical strength, and bererk episodes, while he was in the program, since he left, the episodes have decreased by at least fifty percent, but his strength hasn't.  They HAD to have done something.  He was put in at the age of fifteen, and they had him for six years, Ulric.  We can see the blood looks odd, but what is it?"

[Piemanlives]

--Galley--

Amelia had gotten roped onto the ship's kitchen staff. It wasn't as if she actually minded kitchen duty but rather the fact that now she was obligated to assist in preparing meals for the crew as they woke up. She had put together a breakfast bake with the help of Mr. Banning, who was currently serving plates out onto the counter, and so far the crew had reacted favorably to the bacon, cheddar, biscuit and egg thing that had popped out of the oven. Well, except one.

Her gaze was drawn to Mr. Carn who had come in earlier and retrieved his serving of breakfast but didn't seem to be enjoying it. Or rather that is was as if he was preoccupied by something, perhaps his wounds were bothering him, Reagan had mentioned that he was wounded and he had walked in with a limp. The timer to the oven she was working at dinged and she withdrew the next baking dish and set it upon an adjacent cooling rack.

Perhaps she'd inquire about his condition later but for now she'd continue making breakfast.

--Bridge--

Reagan sipped out of her thermos, thankful that the extras hadn't been claimed by anyone since they had set off. The bridge crew was energetic this morning, though it might have had something to do with their adopted byword.

"Food?" The helm officer asked the navigation officer.

"Food." The navigation officer nodded his head.

Food indeed, whatever the case it wasn't as if energy helped, the course had already been plotted so the helm was currently locked in position, comms were just passively listening in on surrounding radio traffic, and navigation had already finished calculations for the current leg of the flight.

"Eagle's Shadow, Commander Frey on the Tranquility reporting."

"Morning Commander", The young woman at the comm station responded as the radio crackled "Can you hold, I'm currently getting turned over. Mr. Allen will be on soon."

"Understood Ms. Belle."

"Ma'am?" She looked at Reagan.

"You're relieved Ms. Belle." The younger (comparatively) woman gave her a small salute, brown hair bobbing as she came to attention before she left the bridge. The rest of 1^st Watch slowly followed suit as 2^nd Watch came to relieve them of duty. Reagan gave them a light nod as they left bridge.

Eventually the new comm officer entered the bridge, and older gentleman, clean cut, stark silver hair that could not be mistaken for gray. "Top of the morning Commander," his Eastern Ridge Highland accent coming in thick, "Sorry for the inconvenience, but you are clear."

"No worries Mr. Allen, just reporting that skies are clear and that Captain Kasporov and I are continuing ahead."

"Copy that, I relay this." His gaze went to Reagan, piercing green eyes met hers, "Captain, escorts away."

"Right than." She took a sip of her (thankfully) hot tea.

[ShadedExalt]

Galley:

An unearthly groan rose above the din of breakfast, stopping all conversation.  Some reached for their guns as it came again, as a disheveled looking Gaige slumped his way in to the galley, making a beeline for the coffee.  "Foooooooood..." 

[BdrLineAzn]

0930

Engineering

"Ahh Dang It!", cries out the Head Engineer. James Crowe, man in his early thirties shakes his hand after being shock on the panel he is currently working on.

Through the night and into the next morning, he and his team are slowly replacing the many fried parts scattered in the space. Having saved the vital components keeping the ship airborne, majority of the damaged equipment connects to non-vital sources around the ship, air conditioning and lighting to name a few.

"Hmm now where does this connects to." he wonders as someone hands him rubber gloves and a toolkit, "Okay I'm cutting the power off to this, hopefully it shouldn't affect the ship."

Pulling out a pair of cutters, James cuts the wires connecting to the panel and starts to unscrew the base of it. Elsewhere the Galley's lights shuts off.

Medbay

Grabbing a vial, Ulric taps his glasses as several smaller lenses magnify his vision.

"Hmm, The Marauders you say.... I heard about that group, reports of a few raids hitting the northern coast of Chaladon. Didn't know they experimented on their own."

Holding it up to the light, he twist the small tube of glass to see if he can make something out of it. Clicking his tongue, he snaps his fingers and starts to head out the room.

"I think I just have something," he calls behind him, "If you can, follow me to my room. The others can take care of the patients for the time beinging."

Hanger Bay

"There," Courage strains as he tightens the final bolt down on Davis's plane, "That should do it."

Standing back, he takes in the gull-winged plane. Having being the most damaged, after the repairs it looks like it just came off the assembly line. In the background, several others are helping the remain three pilots in thier own repairs, not quite as extensive as repairing the first one.

"Well Davis, she should be good. If you want we can fuel her for a test run."

[Carn]

Medbay

Catching up to Ulric, Alison continues,

"The Angleans are few in resources and numbers, but more Old World Technology survived there then about anywhere.  I wouldn't put it past any of the factions to have a super soldier program, particularly one in their situation.  Alister was a young, promising soldier, who already displayed latent tendencies that they liked.  Think about it, have a superior officer who acted more like a handler, odd smelling rations, and mission after mission of hard combat.  They didn't just try to augment him, they conditioned him....."

"Galley"

Stuck in memory lane, Alister begins to eat, albeit without his normal gusto."

[Piemanlives]

--Galley--

The breakfast rush had slowed down as most of the off duty crew had already been fed, amny deciding to stick around and chat with one another before they go on duty. 1^st Watch had come to join them, in particular Ms. Belle was assisting Mr. Banning and the issues he was currently having with his oven. Mr. Gaige had stirred things up momentarily but, granted his coffee, he was capable of making coherent sentences.

They are however, only barely coherent.

She had directed him to the same table as Mr. Carn, the three of them sitting together in awkward silence, Gaige being barely capable of holding a conversation and Carn having only barely aknowledged their presence at the table. Still the two of them were in a precarious state, and she would not let it stand.

"Mr. Gaige," her voice taking on airs, "you have already passed out twice today and ended up in the infirmary, please go and get some rest before we make it a second time." She turned her attention Carn,  "Mr. Carn, are you alright? You seem to be quite distracted, are you feeling well?"

--Hanger Bay--

Davis looked at the now freshly repaired aircraft. He then looked back to Courage, put on a thinking face, and answered.

"Eh, why not."

[BdrLineAzn]

Hanger Bay

With a whistle, Courage motions for a fuel container to be brought over. Squeaky wheels are heard as two people cart in the tank. Lifting panels on either side of the wings, the fuel tanks are found at the edge near the wing tips.

"Ok, fuel her up," Courage says to the two. Tapping his chin, he also opens the gun panels, "Get some bullet belts here as well."

"Watch it!" a cry calls out.

Turning his head, Courage goes wide eyed as he braces himself as a magazine box is thrown towards him.

"Oof. Careful! Some of us aren't fully healed yet!" raising his bandaged arm, "Bring some more, gonna load her up."

Opening the box, he pulls out the long belt and starts to place them in the slot for the guns.

"You'll never know what is going to be out there. Can't be too careful," he says to Davis.

Engineering

"Umm, this goes where again?" asks one of his engineers.

Shaking his head, Crowe watches on as his team try to repair another panel. Already disassemble and removed the contents, they are currently trying to replace the damaged equipment.

"You know, someone call Lorena. She'll can help us," James says to them, "and keep my sanity..... First the Galley's lights, now the pressure to the toilets," saying the last bit to himself.

Nodding, one goes off to find a radio.

Storage Room Ulric's Quarters/Labratory

Leading Alision just pass the Brig, the pair find themselves at a door leading to another storage space.

"Ah here it is, I'm glad that the Commander manage to find me some space," Ulric says as he opens the door.

Inside the majority of the space is littered with books, beakers filled with different colours of liquid connecting to one another, stuffed animals, and pages plastered on the walls. In one of the corner of the room is a small twin size bead with several drawers and a portable oven.

"Sorry about the mess, I just can't seem to find the time to clean. Haha. Now the blood samples."

Taking the vials, Ulric goes over to a table and slides over the contents to one side. Grabbing a stand, he places the samples in them as he brings out more beakers and a burner. Opening a cabinet, bottles of unknown liquids are shown as he grabs several of them. Picking up the first sample, using a pipet, he draws out a drop from one of his bottles and inserts it in the blood. Mixing the vial, he turns on the burner and notices a change in color.

"Hmmmmm," he takes out a notepad and jolts down something in pencil. Turning to Alison, "You can help yourself to my equipment, this is going to be tough."

[ShadedExalt]

Galley:

Slurring slightly, but smiling faintly at Ms. Belle. "Dun worry miss, ah've had worse.  Jus' a lil' ou' of practice.  Gimme 'nother two hourrs sleep, an' I'll be righ' as rain, you'll see."  Draining the rest of his coffee, he sets in on his fried egg sandwich, somewhat messily before reminding himself that decorum is called for when in front of a lady.   "Now ah'm sure you're wondering wha' could possibly been worse 'an this, but when I don't feel like ah've been rammed by a Galleon ah'll tell you."

[Piemanlives]

--Galley--

Now she knew he had to get some sleep.

"Mr. Gaige, Ms. Belle is over in the kitchen, I do recommend you get some rest at least. It'll do no good for you to faint should the events of last night repeat themesleves."

--Alison/Lorena's Room--

Lorena felt the vibration of the radio before she heard what was being transmitted. Since she had woken up on the gunnery deck till... well, now, she had been working with the engineering teams to repair and replace the damage done to the hanger bay and engineering. Of course something would go wrong while she was enjoying the comfort of her own bed.

"-ally need you down here before half the wrench monkeys get their heads chewed off." The man on the otherside was her assistant on the team she led, due to her experience she had been put in charge of one of the few teams that had any actual experience.

She picked up the radio and pressed the transmit button. The engineering teams had their own set of handheld radios to coordinate repair and maintenance efforts.

"Hank could you repeat that." She let go of the transmitter.

"The newbies are screwing up-" she heard a muttered 'like usual' "and the boss man is getting irritated at them."

"So nothing new."

"Pretty much."

"Fine, I'll be there in a moment."

"Take as long as you want-" she could hear the amusment in his voice, "I want to see how far Crowe is willing to go."

--Hanger Bay--

"Right, fuel lines check out. Ammo is registered as loaded." He jostled the control stick about as he looked at his wings. "Control surfaces are active. Ready to go."

He felt his craft lift off the repaired launch bay, the doors lifting over and out to allow space to be lowered down into the skies. Engines warmed he deployed his wings and prepared himself.

"Launching." He punched the release on his control panel and gunned the engine as he fell, pulling up in a steep climb.

Ok, so not dead yet.

[ShadedExalt]

Galley:

"Ah shit.  Guess I am pretty ou' of it."  Downing a second glass of coffee, the fog of exhaustion lifts just enough to get out a properly spoken sentence.  "My apologies, Amelia.  Thanks for your concern, but I really will be fine with a couple hour's sleep.  You're skilled, so I can assume experience, but not how much, so forgive me if I sound patronizing here.  After a decade or two of practically living on airships, you learn some lessons, first of which is to catch some sleep whenever possible.  Just ask Carn.  Second is how to run on minimal amounts of sleep.  And thanks again for all the help last night, things would have gone a lot worse without two people who knew what they were doing."

Standing, sandwich in hand, he salutes.  "Could you do me a favour, and find out how repairs are going elsewhere?  When I wake up I would love to know what's going on."