Fantasy [Steampunk] The Last Ship

[Archie]

Skyworld: The Last Ship​

In the beginning, there was no life on the gas giant of Celestis. Then, as asteroids and moons crashed into the world, its magnetic field repelled the cobalt within the asteroids, propelling them into the outer layer of the atmosphere, where the air was breathable for organic life. Soon, the rocks that fell to Celestis crashed into each other, forming continents and islands. Some could house only a few thousand people. Others, complete with mountains, rivers, and deserts, were the size of continents and could sustain populations up to 100 million.

40,000 years ago, humans evolved and settled the skies. Realizing that anything containing a magnetic substance could be propelled by Celestis's core, we found it easy to build ships and sail the skies. Our islands floated, their paths dictated by the many storms of the atmosphere, so there were plenty of opportunities to discover new landmasses, and to trade with new people. Our world became cosmopolitan and diverse, as all cultures eventually came together, and drifted apart, in cycles that were as short as a few years. For most of that history, we were primitive. But then, 152 years ago, the engineer Aeternius created the first steam engine, ushering in the industrial age.

The Kingdom of Aeternia, which he founded, grew into the most powerful country in the world. With a capital city that alone contained 10 million people, complete with all the trappings of an industrialized society - factories, mansions, and of course, slums, Aeternia fed itself through production and conquest. In the First and Second Sky Wars between 32 and 98 AA (After Aeternius), Aeternia crushed the ancient empires of Shahrizor, Ridolfo, Folstaran, Yuanzhou, and Tengorod.

The city created an empire stretching a third of known rivals, but it was not long before rivals emerged. In 77 AA, the three cities of Stellemar, Achaus, and Tengorod formed the Volkarine Union, nominally against the imperialism of Aeternia. The Union expanded through conquest, asserting its bureaucracy and oligarchy across dozens of industrializing cities. In 112 AA, the last Shogun of Furusato was deposed, and the Furoshi as well embarked on an ambitious campaign of modernization and colonization.

The climactic conflict came two years ago, 150 AA. Our people knew it as the Third Sky War, but the Volkarines and Furoshi called it the "Liberation War". The two empires had been allied for four years, and carefully crafted a plan to attack us.

The Furoshi initiated the attack when the winds of Celestis had carried Aeternia and Furusato to opposite sides of the world. Their marines landed, and through bravery and surprise took our "impregnable fortresses" on that side of the world. Instantly, we launched all our fleets except the Ninth at "those damn Furos", determined to punish them for their arrogance. Our fleet was massive, but they had this all worked out.

Our fleet had to travel across the world, harassed constantly by their aircraft carriers, and ships they had hidden in the clouds. To make matters worse, they had seized every island and fortress on that side of the world, so we had to retake them or they'd use them as airstrips. Our fleet spent two years in a remote land, unable to resupply, and dwindled to half its size. It was only at that point that the Furoshi navy attacked, completely destroying our fleet in the skies over their capital.

Things went from bad to worse. In preparation for a drawn out war, our government had been commissioning a hundred new ships, but most never got a chance to launch. Just weeks after the Battle of Furusato, the Volkarine navy showed up above our capital, defeating the outnumbered Ninth fleet in a lop-sided battle.

We, the crew of the ANS Intrepid, knew that the battle was hopeless. We also knew that the Volkarine oligarchy would kill hundreds of thousands in their bombardment, and subject the survivors to a life of forced labor. Our ship was new, launched only a week before the Battle of Aeternia. The last remaining battleship in the fleet, the Intrepid was the first ship to also have an internal runway, letting us double up as an aircraft carrier - no matter what happened to our country, we knew that we could fight back alone.

We spent the battle picking up refugees, including the royal heir, and then setting sail to... who knows where. The last hope for our people, we are sure to be hounded by the Volkarines over the next few days.

If we can survive, maybe there is hope. Victors always turn on each other, and our old enemies will be no different.

In the mean time, there's a beautiful world out there, much of which hasn't even been discovered. If anything good came of this, it's that we finally got an opportunity to sightsee.


In this RP, we roleplay as the crew and refugees aboard the ANS Intrepid, the last battleship of the Aeternian Navy. The RP starts just an hour after the fall of Aeternia, so there's bound to be chaos. The first few days will be spent losing the attackers, finding food and a place to hide. After that, there's no telling where our journey will take us - our country is gone, and we're fugitives on the run from the new powers that be.

I'm looking for about 10-15 players, and fixed roles on the crew, with an unlimited number of refugees aboard the ship of all backgrounds.

Ship roles are:

Captain: RayPurchase
First Mate: Braddington
Prince/Princess of Aeternia: Duke of Doge
Quartermaster: PapaJonny
Fighter Squadron leader: ShadowAssassin
Fighter squadron (up to 3): LetsGoGuy , Togy , Archie
Marines Lt: Viper Actual
Marines (up to 2):
Gunners (up to 2): Kibaa
Cabin boys (up to 2): IsCarbonBased
Powder Monkeys (up to 2): BlueHawk
Medical Officer: -Mork-
Engineers (up to 2): TYPE , Trektek


If you're looking to join, post in the Other or OOC thread and let me know which role you'd want, or if you want to create a refugee.

 

[Archie]

Captain: RayPurchase
First Mate: Braddington
Prince/Princess of Aeternia: Duke of Doge
Quartermaster: PapaJonny
Fighter Squadron leader: ShadowAssassin
Fighter squadron (up to 3): LetsGoGuy , Togy , Archie
Marines Lt: Viper Actual
Marines (up to 2):
Gunners (up to 2): Kibaa
Cabin boys (up to 2): IsCarbonBased
Powder Monkeys (up to 2): BlueHawk
Medical Officer: -Mork-
Engineers (up to 2): TYPE , Trektek

((WE ARE STARTING!!!

If you haven't finished your CS yet, no worries. PM me if you'd like any help or want to bounce ideas off me. The first scene will probably last a few days, so you have time! Put it up whenever, and I'll add you to the starting post))

Aboard VNS Grossvyenburg

"How long have we known each other, Horatio?" asked a blonde man, barely thirty six years of age, looking out the window of the flagship of the Volkarine fleet. Below, the flying city of Aeternia burned. Volkarine fighters soared overhead as the sirens of dive-bombers blared. The ships continued shelling the city, even when sections had already raised the white flag. Their first targets were the royal palace and parliament, which were burning. The roars of their guns could be heard from miles away. At the helm of this fleet, and in the middle, Minister-President Fyodor von Golchak closed his eyes, listening to the music of his guns as if they formed an orchestra.

"Since the beginning" replied a dark haired man. Both men were equally scarred. Like all Volkarine nobles, they had taken up fencing as their pastime in school and in university, and wore their wounds with pride. Sometimes, it was hard to tell if a Volkarine naval officer's scars were genuine, or self-inflicted.

The Minister-President opened his eyes, looking at his childhood friend and smiling.

"If only Markvart could see us now. Nein, it can't be done, you fools!" he joked.

"Good thing he's seven feet below the ground" Admiral Horatio Zeyler replied. "Damn defeatists" he scoffed.

The two looked in silence at their crowning achievement - a genocide from above, consummated by flames taller than the factory chimneys, a result of a war their country had not truly fought, but which they most certainly won.

"Did Saigo telegram?" asked Zeyler, seeing if the Furoshi premier had offered proper congratulations.

"Ja" Fyodor replied, rubbing the scar on his lip.

"He telegrammed a poem. Can you believe it?"

There was silence. Volkarine officers were direct, and to the point, as a matter of culture. They did not indulge questions that didn't need to be asked, or answer anything asked rhetorically.

"Like dew, she came. Like dew, she went"


Fighter Bay
ShadowAssassin , LetsGoGuy , Togy , Archie

Like dew, she came. Like dew, she went - Ichiori Katsubari

Theo folded that slip of paper, crumpled it, and let it fall to the ground. When he was at university, he was briefly fascinated by Furoshi death poetry, written by Kusemono warriors before battle or ritual suicide. They gave him brief moments of confidence. He couldn't think of that horrid country anymore after all that he had seen in the past year. They had taken away his parents to God knows where, either killed or jailed Will, and eliminated all his friends from the navy in the last battle. Theo had just returned from his last sortie, as one of the deck hands got him water. He removed his flight goggles and waited as his monoplane, its wings folded up, was refuelled by the hangar crew, dressed in brown and blue fatigues.

"What are you all standing around for!?" shouted a high pitched voice. Theo turned and saw, in blue uniform, a kid who could have been no more than fourteen years of age barking orders.

"Faster! Faster!" Midshipman Burns shouted at the ground crew. Theo reminded himself that all senior officers of the Aeternian royal navy started as annoying brats like this, but still couldn't stand them. Soon, Burns was beelining towards him. Theo looked around him, seeing the three other members of his fighter squadron, whom he didn't even know yet. Most just came on board after the battle.

"What are you standing around for, Cosgrove!" shouted the midshipman.

"Orders directly from the bridge! Get flying all of you, you have to go on an attack run!"

Theo looked around him, to his new squadron captain whom he barely knew, and to the other members of the crew. The Lieutenant was annoyed at having to take orders from a kid, especially since the battle-hardened pilots of his squadron all outranked midshipmen - somewhere between a non-com and an officer - in normal circumstances. In this case, the ever irritating Burns was speaking on behalf of the bridge, however, which, in the navy meant it was the equivalent of the First Mate or Captain himself ordering the pilots to sortie.

He hopped in his fighter as the ground crew finished refuelling, and closed his eyes. His heart was still pounding. Just an attack run, just an attack run he reminded himself. And I'll get to fly! he thought, trying to encourage himself. He regretted throwing the death poem on the ground. If this was an attack run, it meant the enemy ships were un-escorted, right? The ground crew loaded bombs, supposed to be dropped in a dive, onto the wings, which meant that they didn't expect any aerial opposition. Piece of cak- Theo continued, his eyes closed as he reassured himself, but he was cut short when he felt himself jerked upwards in his seat, into his belt.

"Aah!" he squealed, relieved that his radio wasn't on. He always hated the drop. Without a runway, planes on the Intrepid were dropped literally out the bottom of the ship, supposed to gain lift as they fell. Dropped one at a time to avoid collision, the planes were expected to turn upwards within thirty seconds. Theo's engine roared as his propeller sprinted into action. His hand was on the throttle, pulling back with all the weight that his five feet and six inches of thin bodymass could muster - evidently not a lot - as it took him thirty three to "turn the U" and get airborne.

In front of Theo, a battleship was visible in the distance. Along with it were several black dots. Theo put down his flight goggles and squinted. The dots were now more like lines, as if they had wings. Bogies, Theo thought, slamming his left index finger into his radio buttons. [

"Air control, this is Astra-3. Come in. Bogies at 12 o'clock, ten of them. Permission to eject bombs"

"Oh, forgot to tell you guys" Burns' voice responded back on the radio, even as the last of the squadron had yet to launch.

"The ship's escorted"

The undermanned Intrepid had no ground control. Ultimately, the decision to jettison bombs before hitting the target would be up to the XO.

The Bridge

Braddington , RayPurchase , IsCarbonBased , Sizniche , Duke of Doge , Viper Actual

"Air control, this is Astra-3. Come in. Bogies at 12 o'clock, ten of them. Permission to eject bombs" blared a voice over the intercom. Ultimately, in a situation like this, something like that was the XO's decision.

Midshipman Kellogg turned to the captain. Unlike the other midshipmen aboard Intrepid, Kellogg had a talent outside shouting at people - a photographic memory that came in handy when handling naval flags, signals, and ship specs.

"Sir, battleship VNS Graf Aulitz, of Grossvyenburg class approaching in range! Captain Hans-Georg Stelligman. Fighter escort of ten planes! I've already initiated protocol Six-One, scrambling fighter escort!" the over-enthusiastic fifteen year old shouted to his boss. His memory was, as always, like that of a computer, though his pronunciation of Vyenburger names could have used some work. Unfortunately, his judgment in this situation was atrocious. As the ensign on the bridge, Kellogg had authority to give a scrambling order when it was standard operating procedure. In this case, it was - whenever enemy fighters were in range, the Intrepid had to scramble its own. Without specifying the kind of mission, however, ground crew had loaded the fighters with bombs for diving.

"Your orders sir?" asked the eager ensign, with one of the cabin boys, Ernest Yarmouth, waiting by the door to run messages to each wing of the ship, but most importantly medical, gunnery, and engineering. The most pressing of these for the time being was for the captain to relay orders to the guns. The intrepid was equipped with phones, which allowed the captain to address the mess hall over intercom and make calls to medical bay and engineering (which were rarely answered, as the relevant officers had no reason to be at their desks), but there was no such system in place in the crowded turrets. The only way to get messages across was by running them, and, with the enemy fast approaching, the guns needed direction.

Also on board the bridge were the Princess, her bodyguard and the commander of the ship's company of marines. As was customary in battles before boarding operations, the commander of the marines, one of the few ranking officers on the ship with real authority, was often sent to handle emergencies for the XO and captain until the landing troops were needed. As for the crew's two important guests, no one quite knew yet what they were capable of, as it had only been an hour since Intrepid fled the city of Aeternia. In the distance, the smoke from their destroyed homes was still visible.

Gunnery
Kibaa , BlueHawk , -Mork-

It was customary in the beginning of a battle for medical officers and a few deckhands to carry bodies to spend time closer to the upper levels, in order to treat the first wounds rapidly. Unfortunately, in this battle, they would come faster than expected. The big fifty caliber guns on Graf Aulitz and Intrepid had about the same range, but, unbeknownst to the Intrepid's grew, Graf Aulitz had a trick up its sleeve.

Close to the bridge, the front turret of the ship exploded, the streak of the round coming from below. Looking down, anyone on the deck could see another, smaller ship, coming up from beneath the cloud layer where it was hiding. A Vyenburger Konischer class destroyer, the ship was ideal for hiding below the surface and harassing shipping and larger vessels.

On the ground on the deck lay several bodies. Crying out in pain, two gunners appeared to be alive, along with one powder monkey. As Medical Officer Viktor would soon find out, however, Warrant Officer Corrus, the most senior gunner and therefore the gunnery commander, lie dead.

"Gunnery commander is down!" shouted one of the deck hands who had come with Elyssa to carry bodies.

Fires raged around the exploded turret. It was the responsibility of the dozen powder monkeys on the deck to clear the ammunition off the deck and put out the flames, but no one seemed particularly eager to move.

Jobias, commanding the second turret, now faced a crisis. A warrant officer, he was the most senior man on deck after the death of Corrus, but until a messenger form the bridge confirmed a new leader, the deck was technically without a commanding officer.

Knowing this, seaman Carter, the dark-haired deck hand next to Jobias's turret acted on instinct.

"Messenger!" he shouted. He waited several seconds, before putting his hands next to his mouth to amplify his volume, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Messenger!"

But no one came. The crew was at less than half its theoretical size, as the Tenth Fleet had not had time to constitute and staff before the Volkarine attack. Intrepid, the flagship and only the third ship in the planned Tenth Fleet to be commissioned, was only launched two weeks ago. There were a few cabin boys, but only one of them was assigned to the bridge, and none to the deck - a situation that would make communication in this battle almost impossible.

 

[LetsGoGuy]

Daevas had barely returned to consciousness when he was quickly bustled back to the hanger. On the way there, he quickly downed the drink left beside his cot in the med ward. He shivered as the liquid burned a clean path down his throat, opening up his nose and roughly slapping him back into reality. At least they saved some brandy he mused with a smirk as he picked up the pace, now jogging back into the hanger.

Obviously Daevas was not top at the list of people to receive medical attention, as he was still clothed from head to foot in his pilot's uniform, guns tucked into his holsters and his bandanna hanging limply from his neck. He could still smell the oil and grime of his ship on it. The thought of his ship sent him sprinting the remaining distance into the hanger, where he saw it being fitted and cleaned off. As he got closer he saw a pile of dirty rags off to the side, used to wipe the mess of war from the wings and cockpit of his fighter plane. He stared at the pile for a moment with a bit of morbid fascination, wondering how much Aeternian blood was seeping into those rags. His mind started to drift to his friends, blown to pieces with inside their ships when a shrill voice started barking commands. He turned to see a boy, who looked to have barely been separated from his mother's bosom, ordering them to their ships. It seemed a sortie was in order.

Daevas hopped into his ship, and felt a little more at ease, seeing the typical trappings of the little space he called home. His rifle lay sidled on his right, a trusty friend that had helped in more than a few situations. On the lower left of the window lay a picture of an Aeternian woman, one that Daevas had frequently gone to chase after during his brief times back in Aeternia. He realized with a frown that she was likely dead. He shook the image from his mind as the men around them finished fitting them for a bombing run and moved away from the bay doors. Daevas watched the first planes drop before he heard a voice crackle over his radio.

"Air control, this is Astra-3. Come in. Bogies at 12 o'clock, ten of them. Permission to eject bombs"

Daevas raised his eyebrows as he heard this. There were only four of them in the squadron, and ten armed escorts protecting a battleship was a bit much. He hoped that the gunners could provide them a bit of support against the Volkarine cruiser.

Daevas nudged his radio as his ship dropped out of the hanger second to last, connecting it with the rest of the members in the squadron.

"Don't worry boys, I've taken on ten Volkarine planes all by myself. We should be more than enough for them. Although, they were unarmed scout planes." He began with a whooping laugh as his ship caught it's lift and took to the air.

 

[RayPurchase]

Captain Haig
The Bridge

​

Haig removed his glasses, gently wiping the lenses with a piece of cloth stashed in his pocket before carefully placing them back upon his face. His deep blue Captain's uniform was still as pristine as it had been that morning, his cap was lying against the table, his grey hair swept back. His hands rested against the chart table in front of him, his eyes darting about the myriad of maps and reports. Only a few hours before the map had been dotted with scores of Aeternian ships, the entirety of the 9th fleet, now only one model was left atop the map bearing Aeternian colours, the rest were but flaming wrecks, ashes and dust. The Intrepid was flying, but for how long, the VNS Graf Aulitz was already on their tail, and there were sure to be more following. In a fair one on one fight he would have rated their chances, but his was anything but fair. The Intrepid had only just finished her shake down runs, lacked a full crew capacity, and unlike the Graf Aulitz who had the rest of the Coalition fleet supporting her, the Intrepid was alone, the last survivor railing against fate and destruction. Whilst the XO would be focusing on the deployment of their complement of fighters, Haig had his ship to worry about. Every fibre of his being was crying out to turn and fight, to turn every gun to bear upon Captain Stelligman and his vessel. But to do such a thing would only buy momentary reprieve, the time for revenge was over, little would he achieved save for the loss of those who still looked to him for leadership and protection, what would such an action achieve save further loss of life, admittedly but a footnote compared to the losses in the burning Capitol behind them.

He blinked, such thoughts could be saved for less dire situations. His head snapped up turning towards the Ensign and the Cabin Boy.

"Orders are as follows. The rear turrets are to focus upon the Graf Aulitz, rippling fire, I want that fire kept up, enough to keep her weary. I want Engineering to give us every ounce of power they can coax out of those engines, if the Aulitz catches us we'll be meeting the same fate as the rest of the fleet. I want us ahead full, we’re going to make for the cover of the clouds, right now that’s pretty much the only hope we’re going to have of getting out of here in one piece. Have Medical ready to start receiving casualties, we're not going to emerge from this one unscathed."

He did not yell or raise his voice, afterall he had the XO, the very reason for his being was to be the Captain's enforcer. He turned to face Jorgen, hands still resting on the table.

"Lieutenant, I want you to deploy a couple of your marines to keep an eye on the refugees, for now I want them kept secure, last thing we need is them panicking and wandering where they shouldn’t. Have the rest of your men standing for further orders, for now however I want you handling the damage control teams, make sure they’re allocated as needed to any breaches or serious damage. Any damage to non essential systems can be ignored for now,”

His gaze swept by, momentarily settling on the Princess and her bodyguard. He supposed she was most likely the Queen now, the King was not onboard and that meant he was likely dead or captured. A Queen of what however? This ship, the few hundred souls on board, it wasn’t much of a Kingdom that was for sure. Such philosophical thoughts could wait however, this was his ship and it was a combat situation, she could be an Empress for all he cared, his word was law.

“Your highness I would suggest relocating yourself to the safety of the cabins, you may use mine if you so wish, take one of the marines to escor…”

He was cut off by the shaking of the deck and a flash of light as the front turret of the Intrepid detonated in a shower of shrapnel and debris, the light illuminating the deep set frown lines and wrinkles around his eyes.

“That couldn’t have been the Graf Aulitz, not firing from that angle. Lieutenant, get a pair of your marines over there on the double, I want a status report, and eyes on the deck, there may be another ship lurking out there,”

He looked back down at the navigational charts and noticed that the fingers of his right hand were beginning to drum rhythmically against the table. He stilled them with his left hand, gripping them tightly. Now was not the time to let the strain show, there were too many green officers and ratings for that, they were looking to him for guidance, and by jove he was not going to be found lacking. He straightened up from the table, his hands clasped behind his back, stepping forward to the Bridge window, staring out at the clouds ahead of them and the potential safety within them.

​

 

[Duke of Doge]

Raewin Hesseltine
The Bridge​

Raewin's amber-colored eyes were staring on in shock back towards her city, her people, her home... The flames and smoke of a destroyed legacy reflected within her eyes as orange flames produce pillars of black smoke. Aeternia was supposed to be her legacy someday, her future, her duty. A legacy started long ago by Aternio Ridolfo passed down through the years until it was supposed to be hers to rule over- hers to protect, to care for, to make flourish.

Now that legacy is gone.

How many of her people died this day? It would be impossible to tell. The war had already cost so many lives. The bombardment and occupation of her home city would likely bring many more. Many have lost loved ones today. Herself most likely included. Though she was not sure, it was likely her parents were either captured or killed. Her only hope is that their enemies respect the noble rules of war, and do not treat Aeternia's rulers cruelly.

She brought a shaky hand to her head, placing it onto the right side of her head to apply pressure to the still bleeding wound. While not a major amount of blood, she could at least go for a bandage. Her ears were ringing from both the injury she had sustained and the sheer amount of gunfire and explosions she has been hearing since coming too. After a moment she snapped out of her trance-like state and dropped the hand on her wound. She turned to briefly watch the commotion around the bridge as orders are given. She steps forward a bit, allowing her eyes to dart around the deck, watching the crew for a moment as they did their jobs.

The captain then addressed her and she turned to face him. Listening to his words she opened her mouth to speak only to have an explosion cut her off and shake the ship, causing her to nearly lose her footing. She looked out to see the aftermath of the explosion. A gasp escaped her mouth as she covered it with both her hands for a moment before they were clasped together at her chest. "My god..." The heir said softly under her breath as she realized the carnage. Raewin closed her eyes and looked down at her feet. She had to steel her nerves. She turned to one of the marines on the bridge. "T-take me to the safest place onboard please." Her hands were shaky and fear was written all over her face.

 

[ShadowAssassin]

“All units, return to base immediately, repeat, all units return to base imme…..” the voice over the radio demanded with a hint of panic and desperation. It caught Connor and his squadron off-guard as they had just left the capital to go on a training mission. “Oh that was ominous” Cara jokingly said making ghost sounds as she laughed. She was Connor’s second in command and quite frankly, one of the best pilots he had seen in a while. She was driven, passionate, and loyal almost to a fault. There wasn’t a place in this world she wouldn’t follow him. Hell that fit with the rest of his squadron. They were a tight nit of misfits the army has ever seen but were also considered the deadliest. “Dammit, did I forget to turn the lights off again” Jason retorted followed with a long sigh. “These army guys can never do anything for themselves.” He continued laughing at his own Joke. “Can you ever do anything for yourself anyways?” Tammie replied. Connor can swear he felt her smirk at her snide comment.

“Ghost leader to base, Ghost leader to base, Come in base” Connor now focusing on the broadcast that was cut short. Something was off and he felt it in his heart. “Ghost Leader to base, Come in base” he said again, a tint of anger in his voice this time. Cara broke formation, flying up beside him and waving her finger at him the same way you would disciplining a child. “Uh oh, what did you do this time Conny” she mockingly said, laughing in her aircraft. This was followed by ‘Ohhhhhhhs Connie’s in trouble’ from his other squad members. Conny, he always hated that nickname. It was something his mother used to call him all the time when he did something that didn’t please her. If he didn’t love Cara so much however, he would have given her a stern talking to.

“God dammit, we are returning to base on the double. Climb to 40 and maintain altitude” Connor hissed, angry that his training session had to be interrupted all of a sudden. “Affirmative” Replied his crew in a hard and professional tone. As their crafts sped up and gained altitude, he swore he was going to lambast whoever decided to interrupt them. They flew for roughly 20 minutes before the capital came into sight. Right away they noticed something was very wrong as hundreds of black blips filled the skies over the capital. Looking down, they saw fire and smoke rising from the city, filling the skies with a dense, black fog. “Oh my gods” Cara said, trying to muffle her voice as to not allow anyone to hear her break down. “This isn’t real, this can’t be real” The shock in Jason’s voice very apparent, reaffirming what they saw in front of them. Tammie remained silent, and who could blame her. They never thought that the Capital, one of the safest places in the empire would be under siege.

“All units, attack formation!” Connor yelled into the radio, His voice shaking at the carnage that lay before him. It took a moment to register with his squadron, but almost immediately they broke off, preparing to engage the fighters and bombers. “Avoid the bigger ships, their AA will tear you to shreds” Issuing his last order before he put his fighter into full power to engage the enemy. As we watched Cara bank away from him, He mouthed to her ‘be careful, I love you’ kissing two fingers and putting it on his cockpit window towards her. She returned the gesture in kind before he could no longer see her.

The battle was fierce, it was almost as if there was no end to the fighters and bombers, and at times Connor thought there wouldn’t be. Every time he brought one down two more popped up. His radio finally came to life, commanding all remaining aircraft to the ANS Intrepid. Just in time he thought, he was running low on fuel and bullets and these guys didn’t take the hint. Connor called out to his squad mates but there was no reply. Again he called out, this time raising his voice to make sure they heard him. The radio remained silent. It hit him, hit him like a sack of stones. Tears started to fill his eyes, his breathing becoming choppy and erratic. “CARA” he screamed out of his cockpit, slamming his fist against the dash of the aircraft.

The gods are cruel, Connor always believed that. They toyed with the lives of people for entertainment with no worries for the repercussions it might have. Although his family was religious, he never was. He always cursed them, making the mistake of doing in front of his mother one time. It was the first time she ever hit him, her slap burning on his face. Conner knew it wasn’t the time to mourn or think back to painful memories. He had to get to the Intrepid as quickly as possible and that he would do. He did have a twinge of hope his other squad members would be there, their coms being offline, but he knew better.

He managed to meet with the Intrepid but his aircraft was on its last legs. He maneuvered close to one of the hangar bays, crash landing in the hangar. Well it was a crash landing, but he prefers calling it a graceful full stop. Jumping out of the mangled aircraft, paying no attention to the shocked gazes that were now trained on him, he approached the closest personal he could find. “Get me in another god damn plane this instant” He barked at the poor fellow. After pointing him towards an aircraft loaded with bombs, he marched to it, paying no attention to the other pilots and officer that were staring at him. “Connor, Connor!” Came a voice from close by but he paid no attention to it. Instead he jumped in the aircraft, closing the cockpit and giving the thumbs up to launch him.

He always loved being launched from a carrier. The feeling you got in your stomach as you dropped into the world below was exhilarating. This time was the exception. He didn’t feel exhilaration, no, he felt anger. Pure anger. As he dropped, he dropped his aircraft nose down, powering up before pulling back and circling the Intrepid. Just as we was about to clear the ship, his whole body shook as well as his aircraft as the forward turret of the Intrepid erupted. “Where the hell did that come from?!” Connor exclaimed banking his aircraft to look below the ship. It was no surprise to see a destroyer emerging from the clouds. A battleship was already on its way to engage but being alone, it was a suicide mission. Connor thought it odd but paid it no attention but seeing the destroyer below, he knew what they were going for. “Ghost leader to Intrepid, What are your orders?” He waited yet there was no reply. “Intrepid, what are your orders!!” he questioned again yet no response. Screw it he thought to himself as he dived towards the destroyer, aiming his aircraft for the bridge. If he was going to die, he was sure as hell taking that bastard with him even if his bombs missed, his aircraft won’t. He put his aircraft into full throttle bracing for the shit storm he was about to enter. “I’ll see you soon Cara my love, You to Jason and Tammie” he choked, a single tear falling from his eye.

The gods are cruel, Connor always believed that. They toyed with the lives of people for entertainment with no worries for the repercussions it might have.

 

[Sizniche]

Henry Gunther Bridge of the ANS Intrepid - Day 1 - Accompanying Princess Raewin in the Bridge

While seeing the proceedings of the bridge wasna new experience for Henry--let alone not being called a dirty enlistee and being told to go back to the cabins and wait to get to land while they do their job, since he was neither a naval marine nor an officer in his service days--it was one he hadn't the focus to comprehend at the moment. His mind was racing, trying to parse the past few hours. The king had fallen. Aeternia had fallen. All of her institutions, from the bulk of the military to the leaders of every ministry that ran the day to day affairs of a governing body presiding over half a billion people, had fallen. Aeternia was as good as gone, if not forever, then at least for the moment, and it was a hard idea for Henry to swallow. Aeternia had been an ideal he had spent nearly a decade fighting to preserve; so that the land of his brother's farms might be safe, that his sister might live in the comfort and security of the borders of Aeternia, and so that his mother might someday be able to pass peacefully from this world, knowing all was well in the family. What would become of them? Were they even still alive? If they were, would they even think he was alive?

In all of this, he couldn't help but feel he had failed. He certainly couldn't have saved Aeternia on his own, obviously, and even he knew that it would be arrogant to think anyone could. But he was there when the capital was attacked, when all the people responsible for guiding the path of Aeternia perished. He could have done better, he should have done better, and to have only saved the princess, and only just barely her, having lost all but three other fellow agents of the Imperial Security Detail was an unacceptable result. Every single one of them had sustained injuries in that escape, even Raewin herself, and in that regard, Henry might be regarded as lucky, as he had managed to get to the Intrepid with little more than a few shots to graze him. It was why he was in the bridge today; after all, it was only fitting that Raewin be in the bridge in this hour, and one of the ISD had to accompany her. Since he was in the best shape to do so, the rest of the ISD agents had gone to rest and wait to be treated, with the exception of the agent that helped Henry carry Raewin, being similarly in relatively good condition, being pulled out in order to assist with the gunnery as a stand-in powder monkey. Henry couldn't help but envy him at the moment, as there was little he could do to assist the bridge while maintaining his presence there.

Even if all of this disturbed him, he didn't let himself show it. While his mind was adrift, nitpicking his own mistakes, he kept enough mind to stay at arms length of the princess while maintaining a stoic facade. He was here to do a job, after all, and the job came first, even if it didn't seem to entail much. He reasoned that if the bridge needed him to do something else for the time being, they'd tell him, and it just so happened he was somewhat right. He was brought back from being lost in thought by a blast shaking the Intrepid to its core, just in time to know where he'd be going. While nobody directly acknowledged him, as he was by far the person in the room of the lowest status, it was somewhat implied that he was to accompany the princess and the marine to wherever she would be put for safekeeping. He figured she'd probably be directed down to the cabins, as those were generally further away from the hull and deck, making them the last place for both shells and boarding parties to reach, but he would wait and defer to the captain. He would stay silent and wait for his orders, just as he always has.

Duke of Doge RayPurchase

 

[Braddington]

Commander Lucan

Madness. That was the only way to describe what was happening around him. In the distance was the capital, burning, his family, burning, his King, burning. Now even his ship was burning. The enemy had won and they done so swiftly and brutally. The strategist in him admired them for what they had achieved, the human in him could only balk in horror at what had just occurred. His eyes darted around the Intrepid, his reward for doing his duty and what was meant to be an infinitely better post than the Valiant ever was. No doubt the Valiant was one of the first to blow, along with the crew he once served alongside. Mayhaps his line truly was cursed. Mayhaps he was really lucky standing alive right now. It didn’t really matter, he supposed.

The Captain was giving off orders, normally he would hurry the men along but he didn’t think they would need hurrying in a situation like this, besides, he had his own problems to contend with. Walking up to Midshipman Kellogg he gave the boy a smack around the head. Not too harshly but enough to make sure he knew his mistake. Normally he would explain why he was wrong and reprimand him, that could come later, now was not the time.


“Astra-3, you have permission to-”


The ship groaned and shook once more. A large explosion tearing another gun apart. He looked to the Captain, knowing full well that was not the Graf Aulitz.


“Astra-3, come in. Do not engage, I repeat, do not engage. You will be torn apart out there.”


He scanned the clouds, looking to see if he could spot what had hit them. He would have to go with his gut.


“Return to the Intrepid, stick close, do not drop your bombs. There may be another ship out there with us. Scan the clouds. If you can identify it, blow it sky high and proceed with escort duty for the Intrepid. Whatever you do, do not engage Graf Aulitz unless you have a death wish.”


Again, looking over to the Captain for a sign of any acknowledgment he simply stared out into the skies, hoping his gut was right.


Before he could move to putting out more fires, the comms system gave way to another pilots voice. Scanning he saw the very plane launch from the Intrepid heading for the clouds.


There.


“Ghost Leader, do you copy? Ghost Leader?”


Nothing. It didn’t matter.


He hailed the squadron once again.


“Squadron, we have located an enemy destroyer. Form up and proceed with bombing run. Give Ghost Leader a shot of making it out of there alive.”


ShadowAssassin RayPurchase LetsGoGuy ​

 

[LetsGoGuy]

Daevas heard his comms crackle to life as one of the other pilots looked for commands from the bridge. Daevas heard his growl of frustration, or anger, and turned just in time to see him dive directly at another destroyer. Where the hell was she hiding? Daevas thought. He was mentally debating which target to engage when orders came bright and clear over the comms.

"Astra-3, come in. Do not engage, I repeat, do not engage. You will be torn apart out there.” Daevas heard a boom and spun his ship around just in time to see the front turret on the Intrepid erupt in flames. His heart dropped a little further in his chest, wondering how many men had just died, thinking they were some of the lucky few. Whatever gods were up there sure enjoyed their jokes. Daevas heard the order to proceed with the bombing run, but on the smaller destroyer. This was a target he could actually take. Daevas spun his ship around and gunned the throttle, blasting him toward Ghost Leader and the enemy ship.

As Daevas got closer, he noticed some of the details of the enemy ship. He noticed two medium sized turrets on it's body, which took up most of the deck. As he got closer he noticed one more smaller gun placed on the bow. It seemed to be a small AA turret, likely made up of a a large caliber repeating gun. He could also make out hazy dots running around on deck. Likely marines stationing themselves with rifles and such to protect the ship. A dozen rifle rounds could shred a wing just as easily as a flak shell.

"Joker-3 to Ghost Leader, heavy AA on bow of ship. I suggest flying port while I fly starboard. We can avoid the most guns that way and send their boys down to whatever Hell they prefer." Daevas said as he began angling his ship for a bombing run. If he was lucky, he would be able to take out most of the marines and AA on the first pass, and then the rest of the squad could finish the heavy guns off with the rest of the ship. Daevas also thought about how he must really be Joker Leader now that his squadron was all gone save himself.

A round ricocheted off of the cockpit window, leaving a small icy crack across the bottom left of his screen. Already he could make out the small, bright flashes of the soldiers carbines, and he could make out the AA gun beginning to bring its bearing down on Ghost Leader. He could muse later about his new title, for now, he had a run to finish up.

 

[Kibaa]

Jobias Kellingham
Gunner


Even from the deepest depths of Aternia's dungeons, the trained ear of a veteran could easily distinguish the unique sound of Volkarine artillery. Sitting upon the cold stone floor, shrouded in utter darkness, the once revered hitman gritted his teeth in frustration. Bits of dried, crumbling stone dotted his bald head from above, the walls shaking as a result of the surface-side chaos. All of hell was coming down on Aeternia, yet there he was, forgotten and left to rot like an insect. The suspense of not being able to know what was happening was what truly infuriated him, though. More so than the fact that he was imprisoned in the first place. Were these Aeternian maggots really going to keep him here forever? It was all enough to make the man snap. Bellowing out in an epic roar, the man angrily shot upwards and dashed, gripping the rusted bars of his cell. "Damnit all!" He yelled, boiling with so much emotion that he even kicked the bars with his bare toes, fueled by years of pent up rage. "Are none of you going to explain what in Celestis be goin' on?" It'd been years since he'd ever raised his voice so loudly-- in fact, it'd been years since he'd ever even spoken that much. But, not even time could erase his deep, gruff tone, nor the foreign cockney-esque accent he naturally spoke in.

Of course, he knew he was shouting at nothing. Internal Affairs was cruel, so cruel that they kept these kinds of prisoners isolated in darkness. It'd been weeks since he last even saw somebody, when a young lad donning a trainee uniform came by with some provisions. Yet, as if all the stars of fate had aligned perfectly today, a small candlelight suddenly burst aflame right in front of the desperate prisoner, revealing a firm and well-kempt face glaring menacingly at him through the bars. The sudden flash almost sent the man stumbling backwards after a frightened gasp, but as he assured his footing, his brows furrowed into a frown of their own, gritting his teeth. It took the imprisoned man all it had in him not to reach out through the cell and grab the fellow by the throat to joyously squeeze the life out of him, but there was something different about this particular character. The candlelight was enough to reveal that this was an Internal Affairs officer, dressed in a blood-stained uniform. Even more peculiar was the fact that he had several bags of equipment on him, as well as weapons, which was unusual for an intelligence officer. Officer Deacon, as the namepin suggested, was the last thing a prisoner would ever expect to see.

"Boris Tatislav?"
The agent inquired, his voice passive yet imbued with a cold chill.
"What the h--..." Replied Boris, his frown quickly fading as it was evident that he was more disturbed than anything at the appearance of this man.
"Callsign B.T. Identification code?" Deacon pressed, revealing a key in his hand. Boris let out a breath, he didn't seem to have much choice but to comply. "Forty-five eighty-two... What the hell's happening?" The agent did not reply, but his hand inserted the key into the lock, and for the first time in years, Boris was free. Deacon swung the cell gate open, before taking a step forward and pushing a fanny pack, an artillery vest, and a shotgun into the convict's chest, as well as a pile of documents stamped with a classified royal seal. "Boris Tatislav. In the name of Aeternia, you are hearby pardoned of all crimes. In exchange for the mercy of our Kingdom, you will carry out your new mission. To put things bluntly, the Volkarine Union has besieged Aeternia. We are surrounded on all fronts, and outnumbered. We've commenced the Abbington contingency plan." Boris was puzzled above all else, and reluctant to comply, but the unending explosions coming from above and the blood on the officer's uniform spoke for itself. Behind Deacon, Boris could see the glimmering of other candlelights and hear the footsteps of others, no doubt other officers tasked with freeing the rest of the prisoners. "Abbing-- None of this be makin' sense!" Boris complained as he finished tying the shoelaces on the boots that Deacon brought him as well, making his way out of the cell once he was fully strapped. "Orders from Internal Affairs. Just shut up and listen. You have little time to get out of here alive."

It really took some effort out of Boris to not just shoot down Deacon with the shotgun he was just given, but he needed to gather as much information as possible. Things were clearly dicey. "Your new callsign is Jobias Kellingham-Carner. The papers will explain everything else. You must go, now! Do not forget your new identity!"

....

Escaping the battlefield was hell on Celestis. Between having to hold down the last line of defense in the palace alongside Aeternian Marines and ISD and having to cut through Volkarine forces to reach a fleeing gunship, Jobias barely made it out alive. For one reason or another, the newly named soldier ended up aboard the ANS Intrepid, which just so happened to be the last remaining battleship. But even inside the safety of this flying fortress, hell was not over for Jobias. A former gunner and experienced artilleryman, it was only natural that Jobias ended up at the ship's gunnery, having been given forged documents which list him as a Warrant Officer and a licensed gunner.

As opposed to the safe, comfortable environment that the bridge offered, the gunnery was a chaotic underworld just barely able to keep its wheels rolling. All of the batteries were understaffed, and despite the Intrepid's state of the art ventilators, it was still incredibly hot inside the gunnery. Orders and shouts overlapped each other, powder monkeys constantly tumbled or dropped the munitions, and there weren't enough able-bodied men present to properly unload the breaches effectively each round.
"Fire! All cannons, fire!" Jobias, who commanded the second turret, shouted, raising a hand to cover his ear as the other hand held the periscope he was using steady. Through it, he watched as the Graf Aulitz tailed the Intrepid from a distance. Neither of them were in proper range to deal any significant damage, but the Intrepid had to keep them at bay if they had any chance of surviving. Just before Jobias could visually gauge the result of their most recent volley, however, a massive explosion swept him off his feet. Jo's ears rang violently, his head spinning as he dizzily tried to regain his footing. "Damage control!" The scene in front of him was pure carnage, but despite not regaining complete coherence yet, the experienced gunner knew that the Intrepid could not afford to lose ground right now. Recognizing that they were down by an entire turret now, Jobias knew they had to act quickly. "What in the goddamn fuck?" He muttered through his teeth frustratedly, gripping an iron bar to hoist himself up to his feet. "How did they.." A quick glance through the periscope confirmed that the Graf Aulitz was still not in range of the Intrepid, so what just caused that explosion? In any case, if they allowed the Graf Aulitz any space to catch up, their fate would certainly be sealed.

"Rally! Get up!" Jobias ordered as he stumbled forth, walking through groups of deckhands who were helping the wounded get up and clearing the debris from the explosions. "Up, up! Reload the cannons!" Reaching the telecom console, Jobias nearly ripped the earpiece off its cable as he pressed it to his ear. Nothing. The explosion must've cut a line, which meant there was no way to communicate with the bridge, or anybody else for that matter. This was a nightmare. There were jobs to be done, but nobody seemed to be doing anything. Most importantly, though, nobody was getting word up to command. Carter at the very least had the right idea, but it wasn't accomplishing anything. Jobias grabbed the poor lad by the shirt, pinning him against the wall. "Oi! What's wrong with you? Has man lost 'im head?! Do you see a messenger!? There been no messenger!" The gunner might've been a bit rough with him, but it had to be done, he needed to regain everybody's composure, and above all else, establish communication again. "That means you's the messenger now!" Jo instructed, putting the kid down before patting him on the cheek for morale. "Go! Now! Tell command to send engineers, the phone be broke! And tell them we needin' hands! We need to clear out the munitions from other turret, before it explodes again! Need more people here to keep firin' our guns, too!" Jo had all but let the man go, until he remembered. "And tell them to send medical officers, too!"

Jobias turned around to face the disaster once more, knowing it was up to him now to keep the Graf Aulitz off of them. Although he had no idea what took out their first turret, worrying about it now would solve nothing. "Up, lads!" Yelled the gunner, preaching out to inspire the rest of the gunnery. "Quickly! We cannot let them gain on us!" Recovering from the explosion took some time, especially with how little people the gunnery had to work with, but soon order was restored and all able-bodied personnel were back to work. The wounded were carried to the side, and most of the crew worked on clearing out debris and munitions while the strongest of the pack were tasked with continuing to load the cannons. The machinery used to load the heavy, 50 caliber munitions was manual use, and took some strength to operate. The crew was understaffed, so loading was slower than usual, but within reasonable time, the second turret was once more ready to fire away at the distant Graf Aulitz. "Fire!" Jobias gave the order, eyeing the Graf Aulits through the periscope. While doing so, he was also able to notice that the Intrepid had deployed bomber pilots. This made Jobias wonder if there was another enemy ship around, which would explain the sudden loss of their turret. He kept this fact in mind as they fired away at the Graf, beginning to rotate his view around with the periscope in search of other enemy vessels.​

 

[Togy]

BOOKER HEMLIN
FIGHTER PILOT
​

A Volarine fighter's round pinged off his Left wing, making a new little piercing through it. "Ell' shit" Booker grumbled as he veered to the left just as another burst fire was sent his way. What am I flying to again? Booker thought as he dropped altitude to avoid getting hit, making the Volks drop down in pursuit of him. Oh right, my death Booker thought as he gained altitude, making the Volks scramble to get out of their dive and follow him up. Looking out the cockpit, he saw nothing but clear blue sky and a distant cloud. There's not much out, here huh? Fuck me, I was dead man as soon as I flew into the capital, I was just stubborn enough to crawl away Booker mused. He was low on fuel, taking heavy fire, had two Volks on his tail, and three rounds just impacted his fuselage.

"Stop shootin' my fuckin' plane!" Booker yelled, infuriated by the damage they were causing to his only hope of survival. Poking his head out the side of the cockpit, he looked for the damage to the fuselage. There was a wide tear from where the rounds hit, and small bits of metal were being peeled off by the wind and carried away. "That" Booker began as he sat back into the cockpit. "Does not bode well" He finished as he looked for anything that could save his sorry hide now.

He could see the cloud he spotted before. If he got inside there, he might just be able to finally get behind the Volks.

Deciding his best bet at survival were the clouds, he pushed his fighter into full throttle and aimed for the clouds. Another round shot through the glass of the cockpit, shattering the glass and nearly hitting Booker and the controls. "If you don't stop shooting me, I'll be very cross with you!" Booker yelled as he approached the cloud. "Very cross!" Booker yelled again with as much seriousness as he could manage. He entered the cloud a second later, his plane being enveloped in a dense, perfectly white fog. He circled back inside the cloud just the Volks entered, making them fly right past him through the clouds.

Now behind the Volks, Booker turned his plane back around to head for the Volks, giving chase. He could just vaguely see the outline of one of the fighters as it exited the other end of the cloud. Turning his plane to face them, he opened fire. The duel machine guns on his wings opened up in a hail of bullets, each round hitting the tail of the Volkarine fighter. They're left tail wing was blown off in a little storm of scrap metal, making the fighter slowly begin to list to the Right before beginning to plummet.

"Hahaha! That's right ya bastards, I've got you no-Oh, shit!" Booker yelled as he came out of the clouds and over a Volarine battleship. Nothing shot at him at first due to general confusion as to what just flew over them, but an AA crew must've seen the Aeternian symbols on his wings because they unleashed hell at him. The AA's barrels lit up with fire as heavy duty rounds were spewed forth at lightning speed. Three rounds tore through Right his wing while another five tore into the fuselage. There was a gaping hole in the fuselage and Booker was amazed the drag that was created from that wasn't making him plummet to his death right now.

Going into a dive to avoid the AA fire, Booker looked outside his shattered cockpit window to look at his wing. The Aileron still looked to be intact, but the wing itself was was riddled with holes. He'd probably be listing to the right for the rest of the battle, but he just had to account for that.

As Booker went lower and lower, he quickly exited the AA guns range. The AA emplacements on the bottom of the ship could still hit him, but they were still confused as to whether he was a friend or foe and thus decided not to immediately shoot him.

Looking up, he could make out another, very recognizable, battleship. "I'll be damned, is that the Intrepid?" Booker asked in amazement. He'd gotten into a dogfight over that ship during the siege of the capital. Spotting the fighters coming from the direction of the Intrepid, he quickly came to the conclusion that those were friendlies.

Fumbling with his radio, he tried to remember the frequency he'd temporarily been given to communicate with the Intrepid fighters when he got into that dogfight over the Intrepid. Putting in the frequency to the best of his memory, he began to speak. "Ello', this is Booker Hemlin, fighter pilot of the Aeternian Navy. I happened upon this scene after getting chased by two bogies, one now, for god knows how long, and I haven't the faintest fuckin' clue as to what's happening. So if you lads could catch me up, that'd be grand" Booker said while looking outside his cockpit just to make sure he wasn't being chased again.

Archie LetsGoGuy ShadowAssassin

 

[Viper Actual]

Jörgen stood near one of the far walls with his arms crossed behind his back. He had a stern look adorning his face, as did the row of senior marines who stood near.

Looking at Captain Haig the marines waited for further commands. In all honesty Jörgen didn't know what to do at this point. He and his men had been transferred quickly and without much warning. Now they were spread out across the ship, resting in the halls after an intensive firefight that preluded the daring escape from the capital city.

Sustaining only minimal injuries Jörgen and his most grizzled troops had spearheaded the defensive efforts around the docks trying to buy the Intrepid as much time as possible.

Jörgen's train of thought was interrupted the moment Haig gave his command. His head snapped to which was followed by a nod. With a quick stomp and a step forward Jörgen confirmed the order: "Yes, Captain!"

With a quick spin Jörgen pointed towards one of his men. "Sergeant Gatal! Take the Fifth and Sixth squads. Spread out for security around the refugees and to search for damages."

Gatal nodded, saluted and sprinted off. He was joined by two AMC marines at the door.

Jörgen looked back at Captain Haig in anticipation for new orders and observed as he spoke with the princess.

Then all of a sudden an explosion rocked the ship. Jörgen barely managed to grab onto something to remain upright.

When the new orders came Jörgen nodded once more. He looked at his men. "First Sergeant Cross. Take the Second and Third to observe at the bow. Sergeant Hardin. Escort the princess to the central mess hall. Take the Fourth with you. Keep her inside the officer's mess, guards at the door."

The two marines sprinted off and as soon as they left the room shouting could be heard as more troops were summoned to carry out the new orders.

Jörgen looked at the last remaining marine. "Corporal Lancen."

"Sir?" Replied the soldier, standing at attention.

"You're with me. Come."

Lancen saluted and followed Jörgen as he stepped over to the princess.

A quick bow with his head were all the formalities Jörgen could muster at the moment. "Princess. One of my men is waiting outside the room to escort you. He's a good and loyal soldier who will keep you safe, as will the rest of my men.

Now if you excuse me I have matters to attend to."

That said Jörgen and Lancen left the room. Aside from Hardin and his men there was another squad waiting in the corridor. All of them followed Jörgen's every step as their commanding officer approached.

His eyes darted back and forth between some of his most loyal men.

"First squad with me. We have a ship to hunt."

 

[Trektek]

Delphinium Wilburforce
Engineer
Location: Engineering

Insanity.That was the only way that she could describe the scenario that they were in. Pure unadulterated chaotic insanity. The kind that you read about in books but that you didn't think could actually happen in real life. Clearly, you would be thinking, that that level of back and forth, the craziness of loose change crashing down upon a metal deck, was not a real phenomenon with people. The stories must all be false. People wouldn't act like that under pressure. Not in a million lifetimes, especially with the famously tough discipline of the military as a whole. There was no way it would happen.

That was what Delphinium thought, at least before this very day. Before her very world literally came crashing down all around them. Before the only place that she had ever known as home was destroyed and brought down low by enemies untold. The cruel antics of an enemy possessed of greedy ambition, with the power and cunning to back it up. She watched as buildings burned around them or were collapsed by repeated gunfire. She was there not that long ago. Delphinium was heading to the Intrepid on the orders of the man with whom she was serving under indentured servitude for a time, Engineer Perseus Reginald, the man who had given her the steam powered arm that even now ensured that she could continue to serve as an engineer and actually use her mechanical knowledge in practice. They had gotten separated from a nearby explosion, she had boarded the transport for the ship and he had not. At the very least, he had registered her as an engineer on the ship, even if she was his assistant in all things. He had known she was skilled even if he had a bad habit of taking credit for her work during her years as his apprentice and indentured servitude. She did not know if he died in the city, only that she was reasonable certain that he did not make it on board the ship. At least, she had not seen him so far.

Her thoughts drifted towards her parents. They were most likely dead. The shipyards were among the first places in flames and both of her parents worked in and around that area. She was numb to the thought, even though it was most likely true. Her normal bubbly nature was currently suppressed by the chaos that was around her and through her experiences. It was even more traumatic than when she lost her arm. At least that was more relegated to just her and her family being affected. This was to affect everyone and on a large scale. It would affect them all for a long time.

A pipe burst nearby, shaking her out of her reverie, steam hissing and spraying out and up to the ceiling. A nearby junior engineer jumped back after almost getting too close when the pipe burst. Delphinium quickly ran over to a nearby red colored wheel, turning it tightly to cut off the pressure so that she would be able to make repairs. Reaching into her repair kit, she grabbed out a small piece of sheet metal. Nothing too fancy, and it definatley wouldn't hold in the long term, but if they wanted the steam to be running through this section, keeping everything in check, it'll have to do for now. The steam from her left arm was released in a light puff of smoke as she quickly flexed it to make sure that it was still going strong and that there was enough to keep it going. Without losing another beat, she moved the metal into place and began to secure it tightly using her available tools at hand. Not the best looking repairs, but it would hold for now.

She felt the shudder of the ship and was knocked back down after failing to properly secure herself, hitting her right arm into a nearby pipe as she let out a short yelp from the pain. Of course she had to hit her good arm. Hopefully this ship will hold together. She'd do her damn best to keep it a float. Hopefully enough to get it somewhere safe for the time being.​

 

[ShadowAssassin]

Connor
Ghost Leader
​

Connor looked out of his cockpit towards his wings as they shuddered, vibrating the aircraft and annoying the hell out of him. He turned his head towards his speedometer checking the speed of the plane as he continued diving towards the destroyer. Normally, a fighter would be able to handle these speeds without any issues but with bombs loaded, they turned this nimble and versatile fighter into a clunky and slow metal tube. Loading bombs onto a fighter plane, what a brilliant idea He thought to himself fighting to stabilize his aircraft. He knew it wasn’t the time to complain, especially now fighting for his people to survive this Genocide. “Genocide huh” remembering the bodies littering the city streets. Killing soldiers he understood, but to kill innocent men, woman and children? “They will fucking pay for this” His fist slamming the dash of his aircraft.

"Joker-3 to Ghost Leader, heavy AA on bow of ship, I suggest flying port while I fly starboard. We can avoid the most guns that way and send their boys down to whatever Hell they prefer."

The voice on the radio came in clear as day. “Joker 3? Joker 3? Where did I hear that name before Connor pondered as he turned his head back to find another fighter approaching him. Connor turned to look at the destroyer that was a lot closer now. The voice sounded calm and collected compared to his voice full of emotion and anger. Connor never let his emotions ever get the best of him when flying. Anyone who did usually never returned home, at least not alive. Sighing, he needed to calm himself down and focus on the task on hand. Taking a deep breath in, he let it out slowly, feeling his nerves and mind calming down. He will mourn later, right now they were the only ones that stood between life and death. It was true, if they did that, they could take out most of their guns, effectively disabling them from firing a single shot at the Intrepid. However, it wouldn’t stop the destroyer from following the intrepid, relaying its position back to its fleet. They would never truly be free, constantly being on the lookout for the fleet. No, they need to disable this ship, right here and now.

A shot ricocheted off of his wing bringing him back to reality. Fuck, have I already gotten this close to their AA? Connor now twisting and turning, giving them a harder target to hit. He needed to relay his message fast to Joker 3 before it was too late. Before he could, he heard another voice on the radio.

"Ello', this is Booker Hemlin, fighter pilot of the Aeternian Navy. I happened upon this scene after getting chased by two bogies, one now, for god knows how long, and I haven't the faintest fuckin' clue as to what's happening. So if you lads could catch me up, that'd be grand"

Connor quickly grabbed his radio, hearing the familiar clicking sound. He took a deep breath known full well what he was about to ask could lead to their deaths. Looking back at the intrepid, he knew it would be worth it if they could save all their lives.

“Ghost leader to Joker 3 and Booker, I have no right to ask any of you this but please hear me out. Joker 3, although your plan is perfect, it wouldn’t be enough to ensure the safety of the intrepid” Connor paused before continuing “No, for the safety of all our people aboard that ship that look to us to be their sword and their shield. We need to attack that bridge and disable their ship. My bombs will be able to damage it enough for yours to penetrate and annihilate it. The momentum we currently built up during our dive will definitely aid the bombs. If you follow me remaining 200 feet behind and release your bombs as soon as I pull away, we can do this, I know we can. Booker, I know you’re probably low on fuel and bullets but if you can give us support by keeping any enemy aircraft busy, I know we can succeed. We might die, but if we want our people to survive, isn’t it a small price to pay?

Connor put the radio down, clicking it back into place. Taking another deep breath, he lined up his plane with the bridge, priming the bombs for the drop. This is it, this is do or die time he thought to himself, fully focusing himself on the task at hand.

Archie LetsGoGuy Togy

 

[PapaJonny]

Quartermaster Ottawa​

Kaze hurried down one of the Intrepid’s many corridors. His side arms holsters bounces erratically against his leg as he jogged. He had a messenger bag slung over his right shoulder weighed down by a variety of manuals, guides, notes, and checklists. In his left hand he had a clipboard with a pencil attached to it, and in his right a small booklet detailing the full layout of the ship, its armerments and what should be a full crew and cargo manifest. He glanced down briefly, skimming over some specs in his booklet telling how everything on the ship SHOULD be operating, full crew, full cargo bay, and completely operational systems, and then glancing over at his hastily scribbled notes detailing what they actually had, and a growing list of things that were sorely lacking in. He let a curse slip from his lips “Son of an Ulanid whore…”

After the military failure at Furusato construction on the Intrepid had most likely been hurried along. This probably meant cut corners, hot fixes, “innovation” on the parts of the construction crews and foreman, and possibly things left out all together. This would have been ok if they’d had proper time to address these issues during any pre launch diagnostics or tests run, but the arrival of the Volkarine fleet meant any chance of that happening had been thrown out a porthole. Thankfully he’d run through the inspections of the most essential systems mainly engines, navigation, and some of the main guns so at least it was assured the Intrepid could make it out of drydock. However things like ventilation, comms, crew assignments, cargo manifest, bridge controls, secondary guns and so much more hadn’t even been touched yet. He had expected a month to put things in order, and instead he had a week plus the last several hectic hours.

His mind was lost in deep thought over these various issues. He started mumbling to himself. “If this is… secondary syst-... flight deck hasn’t bee-... munitions are… if we’re lucky then may-... next on the list is the por-...” Kaze’s wandering thoughts where suddenly brought back to the present when he heard a loud BOOM above him. He staggered back slightly, caught off balance as the ship rocked and he felt the metal under his feet shutter for a moment. “Shit” he said a bit louder than intended before taking off in the direction of the top deck.

 

[IsCarbonBased]

Ernest

Cabin Boy
-The Bridge-

"Orders are as follows. The rear turrets are to focus upon the Graf Aulitz, rippling fire, I want that fire kept up, enough to keep her weary. I want Engineering to give us every ounce of power they can coax out of those engines, if the Aulitz catches us we'll be meeting the same fate as the rest of the fleet. I want us ahead full, we’re going to make for the cover of the clouds, right now that’s pretty much the only hope we’re going to have of getting out of here in one piece. Have Medical ready to start receiving casualties, we're not going to emerge from this one unscathed."

Ernest ran from one section of the Intrepid to the next, relaying Captain Haig's orders while battling the fear welling up within him. He tried to keep the thoughts of his family at bay as he sought the appropriate personnel. Are they safe?...are they still alive? The gunners where unloading the cannons which shook the ship with every blast. Engineering were in an all out war, doing whatever they can to keep the ship moving without tearing itself apart. As he relayed the message to engineering he saw an engineer yelp and jump back as a pipe burst, causing another engineer to run towards a red valve where she rotated it slightly before reaching into her pouch and retrieving a sheet of metal. This does not look good at all.


"Is that all? Thank you for the message Ernest now get out of our way so we can do exactly what the Captain ordered us to!" yelled an engineer who Ernest hoped was senior over here. He had trouble remembering the ranks and names in the best of days, and this definitely isn't one of them.



Ernest bowed slightly before heading back out again. He remembered the look of princess Raewin when the missile struck the Intrepid. That look of horror as she clasped her hands together at her chest is now manifesting on almost every crew member on-board the ship. He wished he was half as courageous as the Captain who managed to keep cool while helping decide the fate of the crew members with every order.



"Think happy thoughts" his mom used to say to him whenever he was too afraid to do something he knew he had to. She always had that smile when she taught Ernest to do something he struggled with and was always patient with him. Then he went off and left them behind instead of protecting them. No I couldn't have done a thing... he forced himself to think on the task at hand. Wiping away the tears which started forming in his eyes, Ernest continued relaying the captain's orders as fast as his thundering heart could handle.

 

[TYPE]

LOCATION: ENGINE ROOM > GAS RESERVES > DECK - INTERACTION: Trektek IsCarbonBased - MENTION: RayPurchase

Attwell had been down near the Engine Room when the front turret gave way to sudden fire. With all engines running hot, his eyes darting around like a crazed animal caught behind his goggles, he rushed to the side, pushing one of the junior engineers aside, reducing pressure on the valve the man had been looking over. A sudden burst of heat turned some of the components cherry red, the valve almost giving in, as a burst of super-heated steam escaped past Attwell's face just in time to not blow up. The boy, his face blanketed with soot and oil bowed his head in a fruitless apology, as Attwell took his wrench, hitting the gauge the boy should have been paying attention to. His wild eyes - not wild in panic, but wild in their absorbing of information - turned on the boy, the threat clear. If you are going to be useless, be useless somewhere else. The boy nodded, before getting up and returning to his work.

Turning away from the engineer, he returned to the main feed into the furnace, the sweat running down the inside of his formerly white shirt, having it stick to his forearms, his back and his neck. Feeling the rivers of sweat dry up as he opened one of the locks, the almost white hot flame scorching his face, even from a distance. While everyone else in the room looked away, his goggles let him see past the glare, ducking down to see if all the pitons were burning. Seeing one of them falling short, he closed the latch, turning to one of the juniors. "GAS CHAMBER SIX. WE NEED TO KNOW IF THERE IS A CRACK OR IF IT IS EMPTY. IF YOU SMELL GAS CLEAR THE SECTION AND CLOSE THE BLAST DOORS." As the boy rushed away, nodding, Attwell turned back to looking the gauges over.

They were all in the red. The ship had never run like this before. Having to power itself. To power the electric generators. Having to power the guns. All while under fire. The question was... was this all she could give? If they fixed six... could she take it? Or would she destroy herself. Where these accurate? His eyes moved over the readings again. Could she give more? Just when the thought ran across his mind, the order from Haig came in. They wanted more? Guess that answered that question. The boy who had delivered the message, his eyes wide - as if almost afraid to tell them to work harder - bowed before he rushed out.

Turning to one of the others - Wilburforce? - Yes, he called to her where she was repairing a leak. "Take over. Piton six is out. We are running with a 15% handicap." Not bothering to explain further, knowing that she would be capable enough to keep everything at least running, he rushed out of the room, grabbing his bag. Less than six seconds later, he was out of engineering and into storage, having slid down the ladder leading down into the gas chambers. With a quick whiff in the air, he did not smell gas, the thick protective plating doing their work in keeping fire out of the supply. Rushing through, past chambers one through five, he finally reached six, finding the boy he had sent, face down, a small trail of blood gushing out of the side of his head. The other workers seemed to have decided to ignore the boy, focusing on resupplying chamber six, but failing. Another quick deduction, he saw that the valve had seized.

Again, rushing over, he reached into his pocket, taking out a piece of gauze - giving it to one of them. "Bind his head, put him upright. Make sure he is not drowning in his own vomit." The man, a large, tough looking brute glared at Attwell, who stared him down. It took Attwell a moment to recall the name. "Richards? Right." He nodded, understanding clear. The man rushed over to the boy, reluctantly going about it, as Attwell went about fixing the valve. Seeing the rest of them standing about, he grunted. "IF SIX IS ALMOST OUT THEN SO IS SEVEN, CHECK THE FUCKING CHAMBER!" With a heave, applying as much force as he could, he found that he could not do this. None of them could. The sudden heat had expanded the pipe. They would need to get this replaced afterward... if there was an afterward. Right now however, he needed to fix this. And he could not do that Alone. Securing the wrench, he turned to one of the others rushing away from him to seven. "Hammer. NOW!" The man, slightly bewildered, brought over a massive mallet, as Attwell figured out the best place to hit. "Here. Now. Full force." Before stepping back. The man raised up the hammer, bringing it down on the secured wrench. With a harsh clang sound, the built up pressure released into the chamber. Almost immediately he could feel the ship - if only perhaps in his own imagination - produce more. The entire engine department seemed to vibrate with power. Turning towards the man, he nodded, before quickly checking the boy's pulse. Nodding approvingly at Richards, conveying that he is responsible for the boy now, Attwell rushed back to the ladder, taking it two rungs at a time.

Running past the operations room, he called back in to Wilburforce. "SIX RESORED." As he rushed past her, towards the top of the ship. He was sure he had felt the ship take a hit a minute ago. There was bound to be some sort of damage. And it was not leaving the back of his mind. He needed to go see what was up. As he finally appeared onto the deck of the ship, seeing all manner of personnel making their way past him, planes taking off and patrolling the skies, enemy ships in the distance taking fire from - Attwell raised his ear. One of the guns were out. The big one. Another volley - or whatever it was called, and he could hear one of the others complaining. Returning his earmuffs to their place across his head, he sped past the bodies littered about, his jaws clenching - trying to not stop and help, reaching the remains of the front gun only a few moments later. Already looking around for spare parts among the wreck, ignoring again the bodies of the clearly dead - his eyes ran over the other guns, watching as each of them fired. Spotting the one that was starting to give trouble, and grabbing the few pieces he could salvage from the irreparable gun, before starting repairs as best he could between shots.
​

 

[Archie]

RayPurchase , Braddington , Duke of Doge , PapaJonny , ShadowAssassin LetsGoGuy , Togy , Archie , Viper Actual , Kibaa , IsCarbonBased , BlueHawk , -Mork- , TYPE , Trektek

The Bridge

As the staff hurried to complete orders, seaman Carter arrived at the door, budging in.

"Sir! Sir!" shouted Carter, wheezing as he had to climb all those steps.

"Warrant Officer Corus is dead. Jobias is running the gunnery until you appoint a replacement-...." he started before coughing.

"This is improper protocol!" shouted Midshipman Kellogg, furious that someone who wasn't an assigned messenger was interrupting the bridge's deliberations.

"He also says" Carter continued after catching his breath, "To send everyone available. Casualties mean we can't man all the guns!" he shouted.

There was little time to focus on that request, however. The navigation officer, midshipman Trystane, approached XO Lucan. The nav officer had nothing to do during battles, so he was typically assigned to lookout.

"Sir... it looks like they've got more planes than we expected" he said, pointing below to the cloud layer where the shot that destroyed the deck turret came from. Ther were at least half a dozen winged shapes weaving in and out of the clouds. Two profiles of ships then emerged from the same location - both Konischer class destroyers.

"Captain, two escorted Konischer class destroyers coming in from three o'clock, sixty degrees below!" shouted Trystane, turning to face the captain. It was now clear who had made the shot against the bridge.


Engine Room/Third Level

As Ernest delivered the orders to the scrambling small staff of seamen working under Mereth and Delphinium, one of the mechanics approached the pair.

"Captain says we gotta figure out a way to get more speed" he said. Just then, the entire ship rocked, causing some burning coal to leave the firing pit and lacerate the arm of one of the seamen shoveling coal into the furnace.

"But how's we gonna do that?" he asked. There were several ways, of course, all of which could deal damage to the engines. Adding heat and water to increase steam velocity and compression would cause the propellers to spin faster, but at the same time would risk causing the engine to explode. Of course, this could be mitigated if there was a way to reinforce the design of the engine, which was a large cauldron of boiling water over a coal furnace, filtering into a set of pipes. The greatest risk of combustion was from the steel pipes, which dotted the ceiling and ran through the ground of the engine room to direct power to the electric generator and propellers.

"Oh, and also" the crew member recited, "one of you has to head topside. Blown guns or something"


Gun Deck

The troops were evidently rallied by Jobias' speech even if he wasn't formally in command. The Graf Aulitz was approaching at full speed, desperately trying to catch up with the Intrepid and firing its main guns. They missed, but that wasn't the point - all the shells exploded into black flak over the deck. This could do exactly no damage to Intrepid's armor, but could kill the many deck hands scrambling on the deck. Everyone needed to get into a turret. As the medical officer and Quartermaster Ottawa made their way to the deck, the head of a seaman next to them exploded after being hit by shrapnel, and the quartermaster himself was grazed near the forehead, being able to feel a warm liquid running down his face. Panic hit the deck, save for the gunners safely in their turrets. As Ernest made his way to deliver the captain's orders to the gunners, he too was hit by shrapnel in the leg. Running would be impossible - and he had to make himself useful on the deck, somehow.

As Jorgen and his men made their way to the action, they were met with a stream of retreating seamen who were taking cover below the deck. No navy had used the tactic of shelling a battleship with flak typically reserved for shooting down planes - the Furoshi utilized a material they called shimose, but that everyone else called melinite, to wreck the bridge and top-decks of ships, but they had never thought of making their shells detonate prematurely simply to knock out the crew. Whoever the captain of Graf Aulitz was, he clearly was no amateur.


The Skies

"Roger that control!" Theo exclaimed over his radio as he received his orders from XO Lucan. Headed for Graf Aulitz, he turned sharply up and left, then rolled until he was descending downwards to where the Konischer class destroyer had emerged from under cloud cover. But... it had been joined by another, and a compliment of six VS-450 Volkarine monoplanes.

"Fuck" Theo muttered under his breath, but it was too late now. He was on an attack trajectory. At a seventy degree angle, he descended upon one of the ships as it emerged from cloud cover. The destroyers, having just come out of cloud cover, could provide only inaccurate anti-aircraft fire. Theo watched the bright tracers streak through the air in all directions, most of them landing nowhere close to him. Releasing his bomb, he turned to the left to speed past the destroyer before pulling back on his joystick and climbing upwards. Looking to his left as he ascended, he saw no blast. Theo had missed. He grunted, but there was no time as two shots penetrated his right wing, with shards of it ripping off. Banking right in the direction of the fire, Theo rolled his plane downwards as he looked around to get a sight on who had shot him. Speeding past him was a black-painted VS-450, with shark's teeth on the front. His eyes widened, as he had seen that plane before.

Barracuda he thought.

During the Furoshi campaign, a small detachment of Aytman volunteer fighters arrived in Furusato and did battle against the Aeternians. Since they were sent by the Kingdom of Aytmania, one of the member states of the Volkarine Union, and not the Union as a whole, the Aeternians assumed they were rogue volunteers. However, the Aytmans received valuable dogfighting experience and produced several aces in that war, so suspicion abounded that they were actually sent by the Volkarine War Ministry, using the Aytman Honved (sky militia) as cover. Mihaly Kopacs, callsign Barracuda, had shot down over fifteen Aeternian pilots during the Furoshi campaign.

As soon as the black-painted plane turned upwards, the other six planes circling the twin destroyers released their fuel tanks and sped upwards, headed right for Booker, Joker, and Ghost Leader, who had started to form a formation to attack the destroyers.

Theo knew that the only chance the trio had of surving was ejecting their bombs quickly, but if they did that, the two destroyers, which could outrun Intrepid, would sandwich the ship with Graf Aulitz. There was only one option. All seven bogies were climbing against the three Aeternians. If the Aeternians tried to evade them, they'd all be on their six. But if they flew right past them...

"Booker, Joker, Ghost leader!" Theo addressed on the intercom, most of these pilots having just joined their entourage from the battle over the city.

"Dive and do your bombing run, then pull up to engage, it's your only chance of getting out of this alive"

He figured they were experienced pilots and knew what he meant. With bombs, their maneuverability would be crippled, and diving as the enemy planes climbed minimized their time in "the gauntlet", when the enemy would be able to take aim that them.

Theo had already missed, so he knew what he needed to do. Climbing after the formation of Volkarine VS-450s, he took aim at the black one, and pulled the trigger.

Before his first tracer even streaked by Barracuda's cockpit, however, the Volkarine triple-ace knew to turn such that his plane was upside down and roll downwards, threatening Theo's six.

Now things are interesting Theo thought, adrenaline racing through him as he picked another target, knowing that he'd have the infamous black fish chasing him.


The Deck

As Graf Aulitz began its flak bombardment, both those on the deck and on the bridge could see its escort of eight fighter-bombers closing in, bombs attached. Two dozen anti-aicraft batteries began firing on them as they split up to attack from all directions. Just then, however, the battle seemed to have a saving grace - Intrepid's second 4-plane squad of fighters had successfully launched, and climbed upwards to meet the fighters.

Of course, with Warrant Officer Corus dead, there was no one to direct the anti-aircraft fire. With the new gun commander, Jobias, still in his turret, the duty of coordinating the air defenses would fall on Jorgen until the captain could name a permanent replacement.

 

[LetsGoGuy]

Daevas listened to the comms chatter, hearing Ghost leader giving him his orders. Daevas nodded as he pulled up and swung his plane about. He was similar in the air as he was on the ground; unorthodox. Daevas spun about, avoiding a majority of the AA fire coming from the first Konischer destroyer, only in time to see a second destroyer come up out of the clouds, a half dozen smaller ships flying around it, clearly the escorts. Daevas sighed, coming around to bring himself down on a bombing run at the second Konischer destroyer.

I need to get these clunky bombs off my plane so I can take out these escorts. Daevas lined himself up with the second ship. Since some of it still needed to come out of the clouds, now was the optimal time to attack. He was sure to take fire from some of the escorts, but hopefully he could line up and drop his payload before the planes had a chance to get truly on his six. Daevas had just lined up with the second destroyer when his plane began to shake. At speeds like this, the aerodynamic nature of the plane was thrown off by the bombs, but Daevas knew that his choices were to make the run or consign the Intrepid and its people to a sure destruction.

Daevas neared the destroyer. As he got closer, the AA guns began to bear on him, but he was coming to fast and was to close already. As light fire peppered his ship, tearing a few holes in the wings and pinging off the glass of his cockpit, he finally reached the ideal position and clicked a button on his console. He jettisoned his bombs with a whistle, hearing them tear through the air. Daevas spun back, waiting to hear if he hit the mark.

A few minutes later a loud boom and a the shock wave shook Daevas' fighter. He looked back and saw fires and smoke billowing from the the destroyer. His bombs had missed the mark of the bridge, but he had torn open the front deck, absolutely wrecking the AA guns on the front. There was no sign of the marines who had been on deck before. Another shot rang off his plane as he saw two of the escorts bearing down on him. Part of his job was done. Now all he could hope to do is to take some of these fighters out of the sky, allowing his squad mates to do their runs in more peace.

"Ghost Leader, Booker, Theo, my run was a partial success. Another bombing run should take the second Konischer out. But we still have another one to take out. I'll provide some cover fire while you make the runs. Hopefully that will be enough time to get the Intrepid out of this mess." Daevas called over the comms, before beginning to take some evasive action. If these Volkarine fighters wanted to take him out, they would have to work pretty hard for this.

 

[Viper Actual]

As Jörgen witnessed the destruction and chaos upon his arrival at the deck he clenched his jaw and furrowed his brow. The bastards are killing off our crew!

He grabbed one of the retreating deckhands and stopped the man dead in his tracks. Some of his men did the same thing. "We will not retreat! Man your stations! Fight!"

Gesturing towards his men Jörgen continued. "Marines! Aid our gunners! We need to hold off those ships!"

With his men hurrying to help the deckhands Jörgen looked back at the man he was holding. "Where is your commanding officer?"

Kibaa

 

[IsCarbonBased]

Ernest
Cabin Boy
Engine Room

"AAAAARGH!!! That burns like a son of a -" the seaman began swearing creatively while he squeezed his right arm, it was burnt bad.

"Caven are you ok?" Asked another seaman as he dropped his shovel and knelt beside the Caven.

"Do I look ok you daft mountain goat? I can't feel a thing and it burns like crazy at the same time"

"Hey you, stop staring and grab that kit on the wall over there"

The huge explosion which caused Caven to burn his arms stopped Ernest dead in his tracks. He was too afraid to go anywhere or do anything. The screeching metal sounded dreadful, something so magnificent as the Intrepid could never drop from the sky...could it?

"Did you hear me boy?!"

"Yes sir!" Ernest replied, unconsciously saluting to the seamen before running and grabbing the kit over. The bigger man, Caven, was on the ground. The right side of his face was singed and his eyebrows still smoked. His right arm was the most damaged which he used to protect his face.

"Alright sit tight while I rub some of this on you"

"Funny this, you sound exactly like my wife" replied Caven with a stupid smile on his face.

The other seaman sighed and started attending to Caven's wounds. Ernest stood up and before he could do anything an engineer called him over.

"Ernest are you are still here? Good. Tell the captain we cannot keep the current pace, he needs to act and he needs to act fast. We will do the best we can over here but don't go expecting miracles"

Ernest saluted again before running towards the large steel doors.

"And stop saluting everyone you see!"

 

[Trektek]

Delphinium Wilburforce
Engineer
Location: Engineering

After nursing her newfound injury for but a moment, another engineer came over to her quickly and alerted her that Piton six was out and the ship was running at a handicap before taking off to deal with other things. She was pretty sure that his name was Mereworth, at least she thought so. It was a difficult time and it was not easy enough to remember new people's names in the best of times, of which, this certainly was not that. "Right." she said, at that point more to herself than the other engineer who had already left to attend to something else.

Without losing a beat, she went about to start checking the gauges in order to make sure that none of the other ones were about to red line or start to drop out unexpectedly. Even with all the explosions and gunfire going on above deck, if the engines and the support systems had a catastrophic failure, this ship was not going to remain in the air for very long. And they would have a long way to go to contemplate their mistakes. At least if things just failed. If the engines exploded, well, she would probably be dead. It showed to herself if she had the time to think about it, that that thought did not phase her at all. With most likely no one left that would care if she were gone, it was a strange feeling.

Delphinium tapped one of the gauges as the numbers started to drop, but after tapping, it went back up. Faulty gauge perhaps? Something she'd have to look at afterwards if they could escape their current predicament. Surely there were going to be many things that would need repairs and tuneups. Any other time in the world and those words would ring truly in her ears as a chance for exploration and tinkering the tenth degree. But now, she just needed to keep this place from falling to pieces.

A mechanic approached her and announced that the Captain would like more speed. Delphinium was about to announce that anything they could do to bring up the speed might damage the engines beyond repair, especially since they were barely holding together as is, but her words were taken from her in the moment that the ship rocked again. A seaman cried out in pain as his arm was raked by hot coals, but she did not know enough about first aid in order to assist him and would most likely just make things worse. The cabin boy seemed to be stopped in his tracks. Given what they were all dealing with, that was understandable, but she'd probably deal with all of this later, once the adrenalin and the numbness of thoughts of her parents wears off.

Delphinium watched as the other engineer had already left to go topside and turned to Mereth. "I think staying in the engine room will be a better task for me." If she was to die, she'd rather do so in the place she feels most comfortable, in the engine room, rather than risking the deck and getting shot up. Without waiting for a proper reply, especially due to the sensitive nature of their condition, she turned to the seamen and the other mechanics and spoke up as loud as she could for all to hear.
"Alright you lot. The Captain wants more speed and if that's what he wants, that's what he is going to get." She gestured over to a handful of them, pointing to them as she spoke out. "You bunch, reinforce the cauldron with some spare metal casings.." Gesturing to another handful. "You lot reinforce the metal tubes so they don't burst when we add to the flames." Gesturing to the rest of them. "And you lot add more coal to the fire."

As the bunch would go off to their designated tasks, she realized something very important and grabbed on one of the people that she sent off to feed the coals. "I need you to watch these gauges. If they red line, let me know immediately so we can relieve the pressure."
She would go around, directing the men and providing assistance with bolting in metals and screwing bolts, waiting in case she was alerted to any red lining going down. This would be severely dangerous, but it seemed like the only way to get out alive.​

 

[ShadowAssassin]

Before Connor could release his bombs, he was interrupted by the emergence of not only 6 fighters, but a destroyer breaking the cloud cover right next to the other one. “You’re shitting me” Connor croaked his eye now trained on the new target just emerging. Connor knew the Volkarines were ruthless but to him, this was overkill. The sound of the bullets now ricocheting off his plane brought him back to focus on his target. Screw it he thought as he released the first bomb, banking his plane slightly as to release the bombs into single file as best he could.

He quickly powered up and dove to his right just as two fighters had moved to intercept him. He planned on diving in between the destroyers into the safety of the clouds if only for a moment to regain his thoughts and think of way to bring the destroyers down. AS he passed the first destroyers and planes, thankfully taking only a few minor hits, he felt the explosions of the bombs hitting their target. “Connor to crew, bombs hit, cannot confirm if they hit their target or missed their mark.” As he entered the clouds, he pulled up from under the second destroyer to rejoin his comrades. His plane was much lighter and more manoeuvrable now that it has lost the weight of the bombs.

Connor flew his plane close to the hull of the second destroyer to cover himself from the shitstorm of AA that these two destroyers had. As he emerged, he saw his comrades engaged already with the enemy fighters. Connor lined up with one of the planes, trying to train his guns on the enemy to fire a short burst and hopefully bring him down. The way his enemy moved and dodged in front him made Connor realize that these were aces and not just regular pilots. Just before Connor could take his shot, the plane dove in front of him, revealing another enemy aimed straight at him. They both fired their guns at each other, just barely scratching each other before they disengaged. Connor could feel searing hot pain coming from his leg. He looked down to realize that he had been hit in the leg with a bullet. “Son of a bitch!” He yelled, still taking evasive action as the first plane had turned and was now on his six.

This is it he thought to himself as he continued with his maneuvers. He grabbed a rag and was barely able to tie it around his leg as he was flying. If this was it, he was going to take as many down with him as he could.

 

[Togy]

BOOKER HEMLIN
FIGHTER PILOT
​

"I copy Ghost Leader. I see two of em' Volks cutting off from the rest. Must be trying to go around our side. Leave em' to me Cap'" Booker said, turning his plane around to face the oncoming Volks. The Volks opened fire as he got closer, making rounds fly past his plane as he veered left and right to avoid getting hit. Tiny holes still surfaced across his plane though.

Aiming the nose of the plane at the nearest Volkarine fighter, he opened fire, sending a hail of lead right at the plane's engine and cockpit. The Fighter's propeller was torn to pieces, but the momentum and Aerodynaimcs of the plane kept it moving forward. "Right!" Booker yelped, frantically trying to make veer out of the path of the plane barreling towards him. Unfortunately, he veered to the right, which was where his lane had been listing to for a good minute now. So instead of just turning right, Booker's right wing went down, causing him to now fly sideways.

"Oh Sweet Mother of Joseph!" Booker yelled as the propeller-less plane zoomed past him, it's wing near scraping the bottom, or side now, of his plane. The Volk fighter continued to glide, its altitude steadily going down. It wouldn't be a problem anymore.

Booker's plane slowly began to roll right side up again as Booker leaned to the Left. The second Volk Fighter flew past him as he was doing so, raking the left side of his Fuselage with machine gun fire as it passed.

"Fighter coming your way, deal with em'" Booker said over the comms as he aimed at another approaching fighter. Holding down on the machine guns, he tore into the Volk's cockpit, spraying it with blood. "That one's most certainly dead" Booker mumbled as he let loose another volley of lead at a Fighter a couple hundred Yards away.

Archie ShadowAssassin LetsGoGuy

 

[PapaJonny]

Kaze grimaced in pain as the hot shrapnel tore across his face. He dropped to one knee as the blood began to trickle down his face, obscuring his vision slightly. “Fuck!” he shouted. His right side felt damp and warm, he wasn’t entirely sure how much of him had survived whatever that was. He quickly pulled out a handkerchief stored in his breast pocket and first wiped the blood away from his eyes. He used his free hand to feel where he’d been hit. It was a long cut that skimmed across the surface of his forehead in a downward motion finally slashing through a section of his eyebrow. He couldn’t tell how deep the wound was, nor how much attention it required. He felt dread and panic swell throughout his body, he took several shaky breathes. “No. Not now” he thought. “The ships in danger and I have my duties to perform as an officer.” Kaze pressed his handkerchief hard against his head in an attempt to stop the bleeding. He looked to his right to discover his side was streaked with blood. The crimson viscera, and the blue jacket mixed to create a sickly purple, the kind one gets when bruised heavily. Was it his blood? No, it only took a slight glance further down to note the mangled and chewed up corpse of some unfortunate seaman. “Mother of moons…” he muttered. There was no time to mourn the dead though. His vision was shaky for a brief moment from the surprise hit, either that or perhaps he was starting to lose a lot of blood. That was irrelevant though, things seemed to be dire straits and he needed to help.

The fact that he, and everyone on this ship wasn’t dead yet, and that there wasn’t a hole in the hull meant that whatever hit them didn’t pierce the deck, so it couldn’t have been from the main gun of any ship. He noted the destroyed wreck of the main turret, however he was fairly far from it, and he suspected that was the loud boom he had heard earlier, though what had caused that could wait for a brief second. There where munition piles on the deck, though there were no scorch marks anywhere suggesting those had gone off, again though, they were a serious hazard but they had to wait a moment. Finally Kaze noted the chunks of shrapnel scattered about the main deck. He wasn’t an explosives expert, but could it possibly be flak rounds? There weren't any planes in sight, so it must have been aimed at the crew.

Kaze finally took notice of the arrival of the squadron of marines on deck, and the hasty, but somewhat reluctant return of those who had fled. He quickly pocketed his handkerchief and cupped his hands to his mouth “Seamen clear this deck of obstructions!! First priority is the remaining munitions, if those get hit by any shrapnel we’re all going to see the almighty soon then you’d like! Second priority the wounded, get them below deck for medical treatment. After that take shelter in the turrets and assist the rest of the gunners!!” Kaze pulled out his handkerchief again, it was soaked in blood, maybe whatever he got his by dug a bit deeper than he would have liked. No time to worry though, with the situation on the gun deck improving it was time to move onto something else. He ducked inside to avoid taking any more shrapnel and began to review his notes once more, looking over what section of the ship he was headed to next.