Chapter 108
New
charclone
Well-known member
The ship rocked gently at anchor. Intact, despite the battering the storm had delivered, which was more than could be said about some of the other vessels. The tall ships in the fleet had lost sails, some even losing masts. Two, further up the beach, and been run aground, their hulls cracked open like an eggshell by the impact, despite the soft sand of the beach.
Part of Richard's fleet was strewn across the beach, deposited here by the days-long storm that had abruptly shifted its pattern in defiance of nature and fought against their every attempt to escape it. The pirates had been swept along with them, those that hadn't seen their ships reduced to splinters under them by artillery.
They, along with the Long Patrol, were camped on the beach among the ships, the latter guarding the former as prisoners.
Richard himself stood atop a dune, watching as his people moved about. Some ferried supplies from ships still sailing about, pulling survivors and salvaged supplies off of ships that were wrecked or immobilised on reefs and other islands. Others went out into the jungle for extra food or to cut wood for repairs.
Richard, for his part, tried not to conflate the image of his father's wrecked car with the image of his own wrecked ships.
"One hundred eighty-six," He said aloud. "One hundred eighty-six of my people are dead, with many more missing. Three ships are confirmed lost, six more that are not likely to sail again, and all the ammunition we had on them… but that can be replaced. The one hundred-eighty-six lives on the other hand…"
He trailed off, his voice hoarse from rage and grief.
The emotions had torn open old wounds, he found. It was not a pleasant experience. But he did his best to keep from lashing out, verbally or otherwise, at the figure by his side.
"Tara's fine," Giselle replied to his diatribe with a languid voice. "Her ship is just a day away, further along the coast. Hardy says water just got in the radio."
She flinched at the heat of Richard's glare.
"Be that as it may..." He shook, hands clenched into fists before the young lord let out an explosive breath. "My apologies, Giselle, it's not you I'm angry at. But…"
"The Sea Goddess Hardy had me tell you about breaking the rules and killing some of your people," The demigod surmised. "Plus, you have personal traumas that got punched."
"…Yeah," Richard's shoulders slumped and he rubbed his face. The salt, he found, still hadn't been completely washed away by a river that had been found.
"What do you want in compensation?"
Richard blinked, turning to look at her.
"What?" He gaped; confusion written on his face.
Giselle shrugged.
"Hardy can't bring your people back from the dead," She explained. "At least, not in the way you'd want. But she can get stuff to you or pressure another god to help. That Sea God owes her now, so she can do a bunch of stuff."
Richard stared at her, before setting his jaw.
"A wergild?" He mused. "I… I'll need to think about it."
Giselle gave a nod. Then her stomach grumbled.
"So… how much of the food survived?" She asked.
The radio squealed and stuttered, hissing with static as the technician adjusted the dial.
"No luck sir," The elf sighed as she gave up, her pallor clammy, used to a much colder climate than the tropical one they had found themselves in. "I know how to use it, but… fixing it like this is just beyond me."
Richard winced. All the radios in the fleet were in a similar shape. Short-range still worked, somehow, but for some reason, they couldn't boost the power high enough to contact Alnus. In theory, they should be able to bounce the signal off of the atmosphere. NATO had made sure it worked, but something had thrown it off.
"Keep trying," Richard ordered her. "We need to regroup the fleet."
"Sir!" A deckhand put his head into the radio room of the Thunder Child. "Ship was sighted on the horizon. Coming from the North-East, hugging the shore. Looks to be the Boudica!"
Richard was out the door as soon as the last word left his mouth.
Reaching the railing, he strained his eyes as he searched the horizon. After several moments, he saw it, a cloud of smoke billowing out of the Boudica's stacks as she churned towards the fleet. As she came nearer into view, Richard could make out several of the missing ships trailing behind her.
He remained where he was, waiting patiently despite the feeling in his chest, as the ship slowly chewed through the distance.
Eventually, he could make out the figures on the deck. A crew of them worked on getting a launch off the deck and into the water, with a familiar, rabbit-eared figure taking a spot aboard it.
The small motor on the back of the launch roared, and swiftly the small boat was at the side of Thunder Child.
Richard couldn't keep the grin from his face as Tara was pulled aboard.
Neither of them said a word, instead embracing.
They would have spent more than a moment there together, only to be interrupted by sea winds buffeting them.
Richard was the first to look up.
"Wondered where you two had gotten to," He commented to the twin dragons hovering overhead, before turning his head to Tara, bemused. "They led you here, I'm guessing?"
"They did," Tara replied, smiling at him.
"I told you she was fine!" Giselle called from the other side of the ship, her head sticking out a bulkhead.
"You could have told me the twins were with her!" Richard shot back before shaking his head.
Tara snorted.
"I'm glad you're safe," He told her.
"And I you," She said in reply, before giving him a peck on his cheek. "But we have work to do."
"Right," Richard released her. The weight of command, which had vanished for a few moments, settled back on his shoulders. "How bad are your casualties?"
"A dozen missing," Tara said. "Twenty dead. One of our ships was smashed against a reef and sank quickly. But we were able to save the crew. Most of the other ships only have light damage."
He winced at the casualties.
"I have parties gathering supplies and wood in the jungle, but how good it is for ship repairs I don't know," He told her, weary from the reminder of death. "The radios are a mix of ruined from salt water and limited in range. We aren't sure why they are suddenly limited, but it means we can't reach Alnus, and we have no idea where we are."
Tara nodded.
"Well, we saw a few fishing boats while sailing," She said. "Boudica was able to overtake one in less than an hour. According to the crew, who were rather surprised Saderans and local elves, we are in the southern Colonies, the Islands my sister wants off Pina."
Richard looked pensive, with a tinge of worry.
"At least we know where we are. But without NATO to get fuel from," He explained. "I'm not sure how long we can keep our screw ships fuelled. A couple of months, maybe, if nothing goes wrong and we don't need to run the engines at more than cruising speed. Even then, I'm not too sure. We found a few minor leaks in the tanks that we sealed, but those were temporary, and if there are more, especially on the Boudica…"
Tara winced.
"Right, we only expected short voyages," She recalled. "Still, we have other ships. If they could sail north…"
"We're not going anywhere; too much that needs to be repaired," Richard sighed. "Morale has already taken a blow from the storm and getting lost, and being stuck sitting here while we repair the ships and deal with the fact that we are now short on transports… Still, news that we know where we are will help."
Tara leaned against the Thunder Child's railing and crossed her arms in thought.
"Making it clear that we have a plan will help, too," She told him. "Going after the Saderans here could get us the ships… but what if they are loyal to Pina?"
She snorted.
"I'm actually a little worried about how she is faring." She admitted, with a touch of humour as her gaze drifted upwards. "… and how my sister is doing."
"We have spare radios," Richard recalled in a flash of insight, interrupting her musing. "They were backups for our field camps… but they were around the same power as the ones we installed on the ships."
"Where are they?" Her attention snapped back to him.
"Aboard one of our ships. But I admittedly didn't pay much attention to where things were packed," He said. Richard then started towards his quarters, beckoning her to follow. "I did have a copy of the fleet manifest in my quarters though."
The manifest was a small book's worth of paper, printed with a few notes made in the margins, bound in a thick binder. This meant the couple had several hours' worth of searching to be done, pouring over the pages on the desk in Richard's quarters.
"We should have organised this far better," Richard lamented as he rubbed his eyes. "Why did we organise this by ship?"
"At least we know what ships the radios are not on," Tara offered, without taking her eyes off the pages. "… what is our plan for the Saderans?"
"On the island?" Richard asked.
"Yes, you never answered me when I asked."
"Ah," He winced apologetically. "Sorry. I suppose I was distracted. As for the Saderans… we need the ships. If they are loyal to Zorzal, we'd need to take the port quickly, before they realised we were on them. If they are loyal to Pina…"
Richard leaned back in his chair, the cheap metal and plastic creaking.
"Honestly, I'm not sure what to do," He admitted with a sigh. "Any action has risk. We need time to repair the ships, yes, but the sooner we get more ships to send people back to Alnus, the better. If we attack, and they are loyal to Pina… that's a problem. If we approach openly and they are loyal to Zorzal…"
"We could take that risk," Tara remarked. "They don't have cannons. When the pirates tried to board the Boudica, their boarding hooks couldn't pierce our hull. When they tried to climb aboard anyway, they got cut down en masse."
Richard blinked.
"The pirate ship…"
"Pardon?" Tara quirked an eyebrow, a rabbit ear drooping to mimic it.
"Sorry, I just got an idea," Richard replied. "One of our sailing ships got punctured by a pirate harpoon. The crew, of the pirate ship, were slaughtered, but the ship was dragged with us. It's battered, but intact."
Tara caught his meaning.
"It could pose as a merchant crew battered by the storm," She realised. "We could send them to scout… determine which side the garrison is on."
"Exactly," Richard smiled. "That solves our problem there… now, that radio."
He leaned over the papers again. Only two pages later, he found what they had been looking for.
"Damn," He cursed. "That's a quarter of them on the bottom of the ocean."
"And the rest?" Tara looked at other pages.
"One ship is still missing," Richard tapped the page. "This one was sunk; her crew were rescued clinging to the mast. The other two… our two missing screw ships, I think."
Tara winced.
"Well," She sighed. "I'll see who we can spare to captain the ship and put together a crew."
"Take some supplies. Give them a story about trading with stuff bought from Alnus before the war," Richard recommended. "That should strengthen their story."
"Sure," Tara nodded. "And if they don't report back because the Saderans caught on to them?"
"Well, then we have our answer," Richard sighed. "Until then, I'm going to see if we can get some of our ships in a good enough state to check nearby islands and reefs for our missing ships."
He paused.
"And… after you've done your bit… can we talk?" He asked her. "There's something else I need your opinion on."
Tara gave him a confused look, but she nodded in agreement before departing.
Part of Richard's fleet was strewn across the beach, deposited here by the days-long storm that had abruptly shifted its pattern in defiance of nature and fought against their every attempt to escape it. The pirates had been swept along with them, those that hadn't seen their ships reduced to splinters under them by artillery.
They, along with the Long Patrol, were camped on the beach among the ships, the latter guarding the former as prisoners.
Richard himself stood atop a dune, watching as his people moved about. Some ferried supplies from ships still sailing about, pulling survivors and salvaged supplies off of ships that were wrecked or immobilised on reefs and other islands. Others went out into the jungle for extra food or to cut wood for repairs.
Richard, for his part, tried not to conflate the image of his father's wrecked car with the image of his own wrecked ships.
"One hundred eighty-six," He said aloud. "One hundred eighty-six of my people are dead, with many more missing. Three ships are confirmed lost, six more that are not likely to sail again, and all the ammunition we had on them… but that can be replaced. The one hundred-eighty-six lives on the other hand…"
He trailed off, his voice hoarse from rage and grief.
The emotions had torn open old wounds, he found. It was not a pleasant experience. But he did his best to keep from lashing out, verbally or otherwise, at the figure by his side.
"Tara's fine," Giselle replied to his diatribe with a languid voice. "Her ship is just a day away, further along the coast. Hardy says water just got in the radio."
She flinched at the heat of Richard's glare.
"Be that as it may..." He shook, hands clenched into fists before the young lord let out an explosive breath. "My apologies, Giselle, it's not you I'm angry at. But…"
"The Sea Goddess Hardy had me tell you about breaking the rules and killing some of your people," The demigod surmised. "Plus, you have personal traumas that got punched."
"…Yeah," Richard's shoulders slumped and he rubbed his face. The salt, he found, still hadn't been completely washed away by a river that had been found.
"What do you want in compensation?"
Richard blinked, turning to look at her.
"What?" He gaped; confusion written on his face.
Giselle shrugged.
"Hardy can't bring your people back from the dead," She explained. "At least, not in the way you'd want. But she can get stuff to you or pressure another god to help. That Sea God owes her now, so she can do a bunch of stuff."
Richard stared at her, before setting his jaw.
"A wergild?" He mused. "I… I'll need to think about it."
Giselle gave a nod. Then her stomach grumbled.
"So… how much of the food survived?" She asked.
The radio squealed and stuttered, hissing with static as the technician adjusted the dial.
"No luck sir," The elf sighed as she gave up, her pallor clammy, used to a much colder climate than the tropical one they had found themselves in. "I know how to use it, but… fixing it like this is just beyond me."
Richard winced. All the radios in the fleet were in a similar shape. Short-range still worked, somehow, but for some reason, they couldn't boost the power high enough to contact Alnus. In theory, they should be able to bounce the signal off of the atmosphere. NATO had made sure it worked, but something had thrown it off.
"Keep trying," Richard ordered her. "We need to regroup the fleet."
"Sir!" A deckhand put his head into the radio room of the Thunder Child. "Ship was sighted on the horizon. Coming from the North-East, hugging the shore. Looks to be the Boudica!"
Richard was out the door as soon as the last word left his mouth.
Reaching the railing, he strained his eyes as he searched the horizon. After several moments, he saw it, a cloud of smoke billowing out of the Boudica's stacks as she churned towards the fleet. As she came nearer into view, Richard could make out several of the missing ships trailing behind her.
He remained where he was, waiting patiently despite the feeling in his chest, as the ship slowly chewed through the distance.
Eventually, he could make out the figures on the deck. A crew of them worked on getting a launch off the deck and into the water, with a familiar, rabbit-eared figure taking a spot aboard it.
The small motor on the back of the launch roared, and swiftly the small boat was at the side of Thunder Child.
Richard couldn't keep the grin from his face as Tara was pulled aboard.
Neither of them said a word, instead embracing.
They would have spent more than a moment there together, only to be interrupted by sea winds buffeting them.
Richard was the first to look up.
"Wondered where you two had gotten to," He commented to the twin dragons hovering overhead, before turning his head to Tara, bemused. "They led you here, I'm guessing?"
"They did," Tara replied, smiling at him.
"I told you she was fine!" Giselle called from the other side of the ship, her head sticking out a bulkhead.
"You could have told me the twins were with her!" Richard shot back before shaking his head.
Tara snorted.
"I'm glad you're safe," He told her.
"And I you," She said in reply, before giving him a peck on his cheek. "But we have work to do."
"Right," Richard released her. The weight of command, which had vanished for a few moments, settled back on his shoulders. "How bad are your casualties?"
"A dozen missing," Tara said. "Twenty dead. One of our ships was smashed against a reef and sank quickly. But we were able to save the crew. Most of the other ships only have light damage."
He winced at the casualties.
"I have parties gathering supplies and wood in the jungle, but how good it is for ship repairs I don't know," He told her, weary from the reminder of death. "The radios are a mix of ruined from salt water and limited in range. We aren't sure why they are suddenly limited, but it means we can't reach Alnus, and we have no idea where we are."
Tara nodded.
"Well, we saw a few fishing boats while sailing," She said. "Boudica was able to overtake one in less than an hour. According to the crew, who were rather surprised Saderans and local elves, we are in the southern Colonies, the Islands my sister wants off Pina."
Richard looked pensive, with a tinge of worry.
"At least we know where we are. But without NATO to get fuel from," He explained. "I'm not sure how long we can keep our screw ships fuelled. A couple of months, maybe, if nothing goes wrong and we don't need to run the engines at more than cruising speed. Even then, I'm not too sure. We found a few minor leaks in the tanks that we sealed, but those were temporary, and if there are more, especially on the Boudica…"
Tara winced.
"Right, we only expected short voyages," She recalled. "Still, we have other ships. If they could sail north…"
"We're not going anywhere; too much that needs to be repaired," Richard sighed. "Morale has already taken a blow from the storm and getting lost, and being stuck sitting here while we repair the ships and deal with the fact that we are now short on transports… Still, news that we know where we are will help."
Tara leaned against the Thunder Child's railing and crossed her arms in thought.
"Making it clear that we have a plan will help, too," She told him. "Going after the Saderans here could get us the ships… but what if they are loyal to Pina?"
She snorted.
"I'm actually a little worried about how she is faring." She admitted, with a touch of humour as her gaze drifted upwards. "… and how my sister is doing."
"We have spare radios," Richard recalled in a flash of insight, interrupting her musing. "They were backups for our field camps… but they were around the same power as the ones we installed on the ships."
"Where are they?" Her attention snapped back to him.
"Aboard one of our ships. But I admittedly didn't pay much attention to where things were packed," He said. Richard then started towards his quarters, beckoning her to follow. "I did have a copy of the fleet manifest in my quarters though."
The manifest was a small book's worth of paper, printed with a few notes made in the margins, bound in a thick binder. This meant the couple had several hours' worth of searching to be done, pouring over the pages on the desk in Richard's quarters.
"We should have organised this far better," Richard lamented as he rubbed his eyes. "Why did we organise this by ship?"
"At least we know what ships the radios are not on," Tara offered, without taking her eyes off the pages. "… what is our plan for the Saderans?"
"On the island?" Richard asked.
"Yes, you never answered me when I asked."
"Ah," He winced apologetically. "Sorry. I suppose I was distracted. As for the Saderans… we need the ships. If they are loyal to Zorzal, we'd need to take the port quickly, before they realised we were on them. If they are loyal to Pina…"
Richard leaned back in his chair, the cheap metal and plastic creaking.
"Honestly, I'm not sure what to do," He admitted with a sigh. "Any action has risk. We need time to repair the ships, yes, but the sooner we get more ships to send people back to Alnus, the better. If we attack, and they are loyal to Pina… that's a problem. If we approach openly and they are loyal to Zorzal…"
"We could take that risk," Tara remarked. "They don't have cannons. When the pirates tried to board the Boudica, their boarding hooks couldn't pierce our hull. When they tried to climb aboard anyway, they got cut down en masse."
Richard blinked.
"The pirate ship…"
"Pardon?" Tara quirked an eyebrow, a rabbit ear drooping to mimic it.
"Sorry, I just got an idea," Richard replied. "One of our sailing ships got punctured by a pirate harpoon. The crew, of the pirate ship, were slaughtered, but the ship was dragged with us. It's battered, but intact."
Tara caught his meaning.
"It could pose as a merchant crew battered by the storm," She realised. "We could send them to scout… determine which side the garrison is on."
"Exactly," Richard smiled. "That solves our problem there… now, that radio."
He leaned over the papers again. Only two pages later, he found what they had been looking for.
"Damn," He cursed. "That's a quarter of them on the bottom of the ocean."
"And the rest?" Tara looked at other pages.
"One ship is still missing," Richard tapped the page. "This one was sunk; her crew were rescued clinging to the mast. The other two… our two missing screw ships, I think."
Tara winced.
"Well," She sighed. "I'll see who we can spare to captain the ship and put together a crew."
"Take some supplies. Give them a story about trading with stuff bought from Alnus before the war," Richard recommended. "That should strengthen their story."
"Sure," Tara nodded. "And if they don't report back because the Saderans caught on to them?"
"Well, then we have our answer," Richard sighed. "Until then, I'm going to see if we can get some of our ships in a good enough state to check nearby islands and reefs for our missing ships."
He paused.
"And… after you've done your bit… can we talk?" He asked her. "There's something else I need your opinion on."
Tara gave him a confused look, but she nodded in agreement before departing.
Good idea,even if cold-heart - becouse they would lost crew of that fake pirate ship if people there are loyal to Zorzal.
Problems with radio - some god,i bet.
And asking for opinion...considering where are there,there is only one possibility - What would we do with the dranken sailor"?
Problems with radio - some god,i bet.
And asking for opinion...considering where are there,there is only one possibility - What would we do with the dranken sailor"?