Grant pulled his coat tighter, hiding any sign of his uniform. He doubted that he could take Carson alone, let alone with a dozen of his cronies.
One of the pirates by the doors shouted across to Carson,
“The other lot are busy causing chaos out front, we got ourselves five minutes at least.”
“This shouldn’t take that long.” Carson responded, climbing up onto the stage, past the body of one of the dead guards. He motioned and two of the pirates grabbed all of Lazarus’ research notes, placing them in sacks.
The man was shaking as he stood to face Carson his face a mixture of fear and outrage.
“Now-Now what do you think you’re doing?”
“Ah yes, I’d forgotten about you. This is the part where we steal your research and then kill you.”
“Wait, what?” Lazarus started to shake further, his face turning a sickly pale colour.
He fell at Carson’s feet, clutching at his coat.
“Please sir, you can’t kill me. I-I have knowledge that will be useful for you if you take me alive. I can help you create this, nay, research further and make you more powerful than you could possibly imagine!”
Carson raised an eyebrow, before laughing. He extended a hand to Lazarus, who took it, pulling himself up.
“An excellent case, Mr Lazarus. Very well then, I’ll let you live.”
“Oh, thank you sir, thank you.” Lazarus said, a beaming smile on his face.
“No need to thank me.”
“No, no, I insis-“
He was cut off by Carson pulling out his pistol and shooting him straight through the face at point blank range.
“Honestly, no need to thank me. I was joking.” He said to the corpse, before turning on his heels. He headed for the hole in the wall, as more of his men, clearly having rushed from the balcony, entered through the doors.
“We’re pulling out. Move it, men!”
The pirates rushed through the door, leaving a stunned crowd behind them. The shouting began the moment the pirates had left, mostly complaining about how their fellow merchants had ruined their clothes by bleeding on them. Grant stood immediately and rushed to the stage. Lazarus was dead, there was no doubt about that. He pulled out his pistol and headed for the hole. Peering round the corner, he saw the pirates heading to a nearby alley.
We should have seen this coming.
As he prepared to go after them, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find a woman smiling at him, which he would’ve been comforted by if she hadn’t also been holding a rifle with a spring loaded bayonet. Then came the moment of recognition.
It can’t be!
“M-Melissa?” Grant blushed as he spoke. She responded with a quick kiss on his cheek, before saying,
“Yes Cal, it’s me. Now, are you going to ogle at me forever or are we going to kill some pirates?”
I’d quite like both to do both… He quickly cleared his head of such thoughts and cleared his throat to speak.
“Of course, let’s kill some pirates then.”
The two ran down the street, placing their backs to a building as they approached the alley. Grant peered round, before ducking back as a rifle shot flew past his face.
“Two in the alley. They seem to be covering the rest.”
“Right, three shots each round the corner.”
Grant and Melissa turned round the corner and fired, he his pistol, she her rifle. One of the pirates was hit before he could react, tumbling backwards as his friend retreated round a corner, firing as he went.
Three shots from me. Three more left.
The two headed forward, this time she poked her head round the corner.
“No-one, he’s run into the street. Where do you think Carson docked the ship?”
“This place isn’t that big. He might have put it straight into the ground on the East Side, the guards will let you do that for the right price.”
They rushed out into the road, and headed down it, as one of the four main roads it led straight out of the city into the wide plains of the south eastern quadrant. Sure enough, as they exited they saw Carson and his crew boarding the Dominus, with two other ships sitting beside it. There were no docks here; the ships had been expertly landed on the ground so that they wouldn’t topple over to one side.
“He came with friends apparently.” Melissa muttered as she checked her rifle’s remaining shots.
“He had one of his crew in there beforehand, probably checking to see where the guards were, or whether the tech was worth stealing. I’m not really surprised he’d come with help.”
“So how are we going to get the notes back, a suicidal charge straight at the Dominus?”
Grant didn’t have to answer, at that moment there came a huge roar of a ship’s engines. A shadow fell across the town, across Grant, across Carson. As his gaze turned skywards, he saw a huge ship, with three huge decks.
“A Skymaster class? You’ve got to be joking!” Grant shouted above the roar, as the wind whipped past them.
“I wondered when he’d show up.” Melissa said, reloading her rifle.
The ship descended, hovering feet above the ground, a mere few dozen feet from the Dominus but with careful precision so it didn’t topple over. On the side of the ship, written in red paint, was the name of the ship.
Tyrannous
At the side of the ship appeared a man in a blue cloak, garbed in full naval uniform. With him appeared a few dozen men with rifles. They trained them on Carson, who looked unfazed by the whole situation. Melissa motioned and Grant followed, she dived headfirst into a crater, where another ship had landed over the years, close enough to hear the conversation between the ships.
“I am Grand Admiral Tarkon, leader of the Free Nation and head of the Free Navy. I suggest you use your last minutes of breath to beg for mercy.” The man at the railings of the Tyrannous shouted out, his voice stern and impatient.
Carson laughed, his own men seemed less certain, as they were by far the smaller ship.
“I thought you’d show up, dearest brother. I see you’ve pinned a few more medals on yourself and given yourself a little too much to eat to celebrate!”
The Grand Admiral seemed annoyed, as though even being reminded of his relationship with Carson was an embarrassment. He drew his sword, and pointed it straight at the Dominus. The gun ports on the side of the three decks opened, and from each port appeared a rifle.
“It ends here Carson. I intended to take the research by force, but your insolence seems to have given me an added bonus. I get the tech and you get to swing.”
Carson pulled out his pistol in response.
“All these years and your banter has yet to improve. It’s always the same, we start to really have fun and then you spoil it by threatening me with death.”
There was a moment of silence before the Grand Admiral lowered his sword.
“I assume you won’t surrender then.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve gotten right this side of the decade.”
“Very well.” He turned to the men on the deck and shouted out, his voice booming out. “Open fire, I want every shot aimed at the leader’s pretty face.”
“Too pretty to scar.” Carson said, grinning, before diving behind the railings as the rifles opened fire. All three of Carson’s ships returned fire, but Grant doubted all three combined could hope to match the Grand Admiral’s handpicked men, especially in the numbers a Skymaster could hold.
As the battle raged, Grant heard the engines of the parked ships start to whirr into life.
He’s trying to escape? Good thing we put the other ships on patrol duty. He’ll be harassed all the way through launch.
Melissa suddenly shouted above the gunshots, pointing behind them. Running down the road was Lauf and the pirate rear-guard, pursued by the 56th and the remnants of the 55h. Stephens was there, firing a pistol at the fleeing pirates.
Melissa turned, took aim, and fired as the pirates ran past, striking one in the chest and sending him tumbling. She fired again, hitting another in the leg and leaving him howling on the ground. Ladders lowered from the Dominus as the pirates dodged more rifle fire, some coming from the Tyrannous now as the men noticed the easy targets. They ran, more falling to bullets, leaping onto the ladders and scrambling on-board. Grant noted with some disappointment that Lauf had managed to survive, he noticed his headband as he fell over the railings and to safety.
Stephens and the rest of the ground forces rushed up beside them, taking cover in the same crater. Grant noted the old sailor was covered in blood, but most of it looked like it didn’t belong to him.
“Sorry it took so long captain. Bullets came out of nowhere, from the front of the Town Hall mostly, but the 55th suffered badly when groups of ‘em snuck out of alleys and shot them in the back.”
“Good job on surviving. Any news from the Raven or King’s Bane?”
“I shot them a flare. They’ll see the battle and come to help no doubt.”
He then seemed to notice Melissa and he gave a respectful salute.
“Ah, Miss Melissa joins us I see. What made you want to fight with us unwashed savages once more?”
“Navy business, you know how it is. Now, who wants to go capture a ship?”
“I see the years haven’t fixed her insanity.” Stephens said, reloading his pistol as he spoke. He didn’t seem surprised. Then again, neither was Grant.
“Listen, how many engines do you hear?” she said.
Grant listened closely. The humming and roar of the engines began to separate, he heard the low rumbling of the Tyrannous as its engines began to fire up and then the sounds of two schooner class engines, slightly higher pitched.
Only two? The thought began to dawn on him. Melissa grinned as she saw his expression.
“You see? One of the ships’ engines must be a little slow. Let’s make sure they don’t fire it up!”
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The Stormy Skies (Discontinued as of 19/08. See last post for details.)
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I wonder what will happen now. 
Love the relationship you've set up between these two. +rep 
