The New World

[Mark Peiterson]

Mark sat hunched over on the cool metal benches of the drop deck. Underneith he could hear the sounds   Of shells exploding and the cracks of gunfire underneath. The 1 st and second battle groups where holding well. After all at 10 Dreadnoughts a peice they should do. He turned around at looked out the observation hole to see the city burning frozen in time as underneath him as the ships danced their deadly dance like leaves falling in the fall. The sudden jolft brought him back to reality. It's was good his parents where safe in the underground military bunker. He turned to Sean.
"this thing 's gunna turn into an absolute bloodbath sooner or later", he muttered over the sounds of war.
"We'll it better be sooner or we'll get a bit bored wont we?" replied Sean in his usual boisterous arrogance.

Five frigates inculding the victorious and the Athena had been selected to board and capture the enemy flagship. As the ship began to dip the knew they'd hit home.
"This is it boys"shouted Mark as the thud of the frigate hitting cold hard metal sounded.
"let's give these bastards a mouthful of hurt. With that the drop deck doors opened and they boreded the supership

[The Corsair]

Nervous minutes passed but nobody let the sickening feeling drive them to cowardice and desertion. They had a good 50 ships just from the sky dock and there were a good 200 military ships on the ground, 20 of them dreadnoughts, waiting to move in but he knew from the battle over San Francisco that they would be seriously outclassed and could all too easily lose with such evenly matched numbers. As far as he'd seen, the enemy didn't have anything as sizable as the dreadnoughts so that was one advantage they had...

Another cloud layer peeled away and about 20 vanguard ships were suddenly a few hundred meters away. About a kilometer behind them was a mass of black ships, upwards of 200 Gebbert had said.

There was a slow, sick moment where nobody did anything and time simply stopped behaving as the world normally demanded it to. He saw his hand move in slow motion, sweeping out in front of him like he was throwing a discuss and a wave of lightning swept out, cutting 5 enemy vessels out of the sky. Suddenly the world snapped violently back into real time and everyone opened fire. He plunged into the vanguard's line...

[Mark Peiterson]

"Fire"
 A wave of bullets hit and found their target. They managed to push on through the frount deck. They where to exposed out on top. All these thoughts rushed through marks head . He steadided his aim and fired another round into the 'thing' charging at him. The ship was huge the biggest of theres by at least 3 times and at least as big as a dreadnought if not more. The top deck was huge almost like a landing zone.
ZzzzzzzzzzzzZ
Came the sound from above them, small flying craft straifed them, but where where their balloons mark wondered. But he had bigger matters in hand If they didn't get inside the ship soon, they'd be picked off 1 by 1 by the other ships!

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius had covered the Raven in a thin layer of stone, the idea being he could use it to actively defend the ship. He heard how many there were and had a sudden moment of panic before he forced himself to be still.
"Barum, remember the plan. You look at them, I'll take them down. Set the guns to intercept enemy ballistics and we'll be allr-"
Hello again Julius. Let me help you... a voice whispered into his mind.
"No, last time you 'helped me' I went blind!"
But think of what you gained. You can see everything that is revealed or hidden, there is no limit to our vision.
"On the ground! It's not much use in the air!"
Then you have yet to realise your potential. Why would you only be able to see the earth when you are touching it? You are part of it, and it part of you. You can see it wherever you are, and wherever it is. Let me show you. and before Julius could say anything he felt the presence enter his mind again, and then he could see everything, regardless of whether he was looking at it or not. He watched their fleet move into position at the same time he watched the enemy move as well. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
The enemy engaged them, their bullets peppering the fleet though not doing much damage yet. Julius looked at one ship, and with a wave of his hand sent a javelin of stone through the entire ship, sending it crash down to the earth below. He grinned in anticipation. Now the field was levelled.

[Man of Steam]

Alex looked out over the battlefield.  The Raptor was at the center of the battle-line, where it could do the most damage. He flicked a switch near the control stick, and saw two gun barrels extend out of the front of the ship. The new set up was part of the renovations made to the ship back in Boston. Grinning, he grabbed one of the two control sticks in front of him and pulled the trigger, watching a spray of bullets hit an observation balloon. He used the other stick to move the ship out of the way, as their bigger dreadnought were getting into position.
He saw that the first layer of the enemy's forces was being beat off, but their bigger ships still hadn't been targeted yet. An evil grin on his face, Alex piloted the ship towards them, guns blazing at the enemy.

[The Corsair]

Falko fired everything he had as fast as he could while zapping the various shells that came his ship's way straight out of the air. After tense seconds of flying through their spearhead he broke out onto the other side. He guessed that a few might give chase but they had been successful in defuncting the enemy's spearhead. Everything was going to plan.
The other 3 ships broke through the line soon after him and he swept another war of lightning out behind him, cutting down the 3 ships that tried to give chase. The true battle lay ahead of them. With only the 4 of them, they had to charge a fleet of two-hundred-something enemy vessels and hold out until either the military vessels arrived from below or the other pilots destroyed the cluster of ships they had just passed through.

[YetAnotherMatt]

Gebbert watched the Falcon lead the charge against the enemy vanguard. The two fleets rushed into engagement range, a image belied by the lazy movement of the circles on the table. The enemy fleet was arranged in a crescent, the points trailing behind the main fleet. The mercenaries and privateers were approaching the leading edge in a semi-organised fashion, with the military advancing in a spread out line behind them.

Dull reports of cannon fire could now be heard, and the occasional rattle as an armature swung back into it's socket told Gebbert that both sides were taking casualties.

[lazarusofartemis]

Kat ran out to the edge of the ship and peered out. Enemy fleets were approaching and dark clouds loomed. She could smell the anguish and violence approaching in the air. She tore off the ribbon wrapped around her hair and looked at it hopefully, but all she did was kiss it, then ran back to her bed and placed it on the pillow. Kat got back to the edge of the ship and looked down.
How on earth do I get down? she wondered.
She heard a soft, girlish giggled. Miss me?
Before she could respond, she felt herself being flung out of the ship. Kat screamed as she felt herself fall metre after metre...
She crashed into a chilling sensation...water...it surrounded her in icy blueness, causing her mind to numb. Kat floated back onto the surface and gasped for air, her hair covering her face. Lucily, she had been taught how to swim. She pulled herself to the edge and climbed out, gasping for breath. When she turned back she saw a lake in the middle of the barren land.
A lake she remembered from when she was veyr young, back in Russia. Suddenly, it vanished into thin air and she was absolutely dried again.
She turned to the ships. "I'm waiting for orders!" she cried to her crew.

[Blindwalker]

Hugo stared out at the black sky. There was the distant booms of the 7 gunship's cannons, the flash of exchanging fire, and the cries of help and ammunition. So far, the war wasn't going so well for the seven gunships. They were completely surrounded by the enemy airships. Luckily, the opposing airships have very bad shots. And if they did hit the hull, they only left a scratch or a dent.
He looked at his hand, and he held a new kind of ammunition. One of the specialists were working on this bullet during their time in the Hammer. An explosive bullet, about 4 inches He only had one, and this was highly dangerous. If this bullet's fuse was too small, it could explode too early...
He forced the image out, and shook his head. Hugo slipped the high caliber bullet into the barrel. It just fit. He took a careful aim at a group, waited a few seconds, then fired. The power in the rifle's recoil shook his hands. The bullet was heavy, so it didn't leave a flash as it left the rifle, and it was possible to see the bullet travel to their destination. It hit, penetrating the target's body and punched a hole through the wall, were the engine room was.
Hugo stared at the person he just annihilated. Small hole in one end, and very big hole in the other.  There was an explosion in the ship. It tore a gaping hole in the bottom. The damage caused it to slow down, then it started losing altitude. On it's way down, it smashed into another airship.
Men in his squad fired shells and threw grenades. Both of the damaged ships were affected, and they were going down for sure.
Two soldiers talked behind him. "Ha, now you owe me 100 dollars. I told you he could take out a ship with only his bullets." The other man groaned, and passed over the money.
Hugo smiled.

[MWBailey]

Fergus saw the black ships massing in the distance; he had sensed the massed heat of their crews and th efighting men abord them, but as Gebbert's reports had already made thei rpresence obvious, he had not mentioned it; instead, he concentrated on piloting and on operating the controls for the massive coilgun.

He yanked the lever that caused a roundshot to drop from the rack amidships, through the passage within the yoke mount of teh weapn's emplacement below the nadir of teh envelope, into the Ready Chamber of teh weapon, and then swung the barrel into position, aimed directly at a massing of enemy ships in the vanguard, and also a forward group in the main body directly behind them.  Suddenly, Falko's wave of lightning swept across the scene, and only the main body was now in Fergus' sights.

He watched as a group of ships moved into a fore-and-aft line in his sights, and spun the power-up crank, causing the barrel to hum with the massive potentiating charge. Blue-white actinic arcs crawled all over the tube and it's graduated coils, creating a truly frightening spectacle. Fergus waited until more than ten ships of the main body were in roughly the same line, and then yelled "NOW! HAVE AT YE, BLACKGUARDS!!!" and punched the firing button. There came a  soundinglike a crash of thunder as teh coils fired off in their graduated sequence, adn suddenly there was a white-and-dark-gray streak of smoke connecting the Raptor with the first ship in line in the group of the main body ships that Fergus had aimed at; the line, seen from the side by the other ships, showed that more than twenty ships in a more or less strait line from the front to rear were connected by a streamer consisting of smoke, flame, and clouds of debris marking th  points at which the shot had exited. nothing happened otherwise for a few seconds-- but then the entire line of ships blew itself apart in aseries of nearly-simyultaneous detonations as gasbags, ammo, and fuel all caught and went up at nearly the same moment.

Fergus wasted only a few seconds in being shocked at the carnage his new weapon had caused; he shook himsel, and then called out ove rthe loudspeakers, "What say we go a-huntin', Lads N Lasses?" as he powered up the engines and the Raptor began marauding the aerial battlefield, their weapons inflicting heavy damage on the enemy...

[The Corsair]

He flew toward the enemy as the Vancouver men swept down from above. They cut straight through at a diagonal and downed a good 20 ships before rising again and coming in to fight level with the enemy.
The new weapon on the Raptor wreaked absolute havoc on the enemy ships, cutting down a solid 20 in it's first blow.
He wanted to see what he could do. Making a storm would be just as big a problem for them as it would be for the enemy and the twilight made visibility low enough as it was. He felt the same thing he had used for the storm and focussed it into an ever smaller point until a ripping, twisting tornado whipped down from the clouds and flung ships off in every direction. It carved it's way through the enemy line before dissapating.
Meanwhile, the enemy launched a flanking move of their own straight into the ragtag pilots behind him. As powerful as the New York side were and as devastating as they could be, they were by no means superior. They had a long fight on their hands. Already he could feel the creeping exhaustion as he launched several tornadoes simultaneously through the bulk of the enemy.

[Mark Peiterson]

"Push foward" came cry and they finally bust open the steel trapdoors and climbed inside the carrier. The losses where heavy and only 10 or so of the 100 men droped where with him, he hoped the rest where still alive, but amougst the carnage outside he doubted it. The group headed down the dark corridor. Keeping stelthily to the walls and moving silently. They passed many rooms and corridors, labelled in languages of different dialects to there's they didn't look like anything he'd seen before. Eventually they decided to check a room, Private adams stelthly eased open the door. Inside where some bunks and and about 5 sets of uniforms.
"I have an idea" said Sean
Seams ideas where usually not the best but they where stuck, he could hear the stomping of feet on the floor above them, and voices coming closer...

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius watched the fight, they were clearly winning. The enemy were taking twenty ship losses for every ship of the fleet the took down. He spied a dreadnought protected by a dozen or so smaller ships, and saw it was trying to flank. He realised it was time for him to step into the fight proper.
Barum saw his gaze and turned the ship, sending it hurtling (in relative terms) to the enemy. Julius focussed on the dreadnought and then felt the entire ship. In the middle was a huge boiler, bigger than any he had seen. They were piling coal into it as fast as they could just to keep the ship up. He focussed on the coal, and with a thought it compacted and grew together, forming the most pure of all materials.
In the ship a diamond suddenly re out of the coal. Nobody was quite sure what to do, one man gingerly reached for it, tapping it twice. It exploded. Shards of diamond nearly an inch long fired out, eviscerating everyone and everything in five meters, and then peppering all the support ships with holes. The main ship went down in flames, the boiler opened to the wood. The support ships all gently sank as well, the crew intact but the ships unable to stay afloat. As soon as the touched the ground it opened and swallowed them.
Julius turned his attention to the fight, and sent a few more javelin's of stone at a couple of ships, picking them off and keeping the fleet mostly safe.

[Mark Peiterson]

Mark and Sean walked calmly through the croud off officers, Sean bit his lip in anxiety. After what seemed like a milenium they passed through the croud o f people and into a strange room. Intruded Sean picked up a crystal and examined it. Suddenly a projection burst out: at first they didnt know what it was but at last they saw it, it was a map of the world with weird markers. Before they could exsmine more they heard people comming. Quickly Sean squised on the crystal and they rondevued with the squad,
"we need to get back now, Jeremy you planted the explosives right?"
"then lets get out of here"
He was inturupted by a loud bang. The ship was going down.
"Run!"
The squad ran for the front deck With mark screaming into the coms set to call of the attack.
On the deck the Athena waited for them.
"everyone inboard now!"
"But sarge what about you?"
"You'll never get off this hellhole without covering fire"
"Sir.."
"You'll never make it, Sean your there new leader, do me proud."
"it's been an honor serving.."
With that the doors shut and the Athena speed of and the supercarrier went down all hands on deck
Mark peiterson was said to have died holding the anti aircraft guns and saved over 200 lives.
As Sean Carter looked out the observation hole he could have sworn he saw someone jump the ship before it went down

[The Corsair]

They cut down tens of ships with every blow. Unfortunately, the military and private ships didn't fare anywhere near as well.
After around 2 straight hours of flanking and counter-engaging and pushing back and forth the enemy broke off. Both sides needed the break desperately it seemed. They drifted back to the sky dock, it was pitch black by now and the dock was the only visible thing from where they were. Upon landing, people went straight to repairing and restocking their vessels, which showed a remarkably high morale among the private pilots. Falko himself was exhausted and barely walking a straight line. He collapsed on the bed, having given Rosie instructions to wake him should the fleet re-engage.
He knew one thing for sure. As fast as they could resupply, the enemy could do it faster. They had ni chance of actually being fully prepared.

[Man of Steam]

Alex walked down to the sky deck, drenched in sweat. The Raptor had proven itself, it's new weaponry was absolutely deadly, though it hadn't been enough to turn the tide of battle. Alex spent the new half hour taking stock of how much ammunition the guns had left, and tracking down where he could find some. while the ship had been hit a few times, it was not nearly as bad as some of the others. Seeing a group of other pilots talking, he went over to them. He heard them all share stories about the battle, and he wanted to find someone to talk to.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius staggered down the walkway and collapsed onto the ground. It was always like this, he could use as much power as he wanted but after the fight it hit him. He wondered what would happen if he used more than he had 'him' to hit. He came to the decision that he probably didn't want to find out. After a moment his head stopped spinning and he sat up. Barum was shouting at people and 'requisitioning' things on 'Captain Rowe's Orders, yeah the one that throws rocks! Yeah him!'. As far as he could tell, requisitioning was a military term for nicking before anyone else could. He heartily approved.
He looked around to spot their group, then had a moment of worry. He did a quick count and sighed in relief, they were all there. He felt sure he'd have seen if someone had been shot down, but in a war you could never be too sure.
Eventually he stood, wincing like an old man every moment. He scooped more earth onto the Raven and wandered around, checking the damage of the other ships and seeing if he could find someone with a plan.

[lazarusofartemis]

Kat didn't feel too well about not helping with much in the battle. She was still confused on why she was on the ground, rather than in the air. The enemy ships had retired slightly, but she knew they would be back sooner or later. While they still had time, it was best to find out some more information on aether.
"Excuse me lads! Will you land please? At least I can get back on?" she called desperately.

[The Corsair]

He only slept for about 10 minutes. It seemed to be common among those of them with powers that they only needed minuscule amounts of sleep.

He walked out on to the sky dock with shaky legs. Though he felt fine mentally, the miraculous sleeps didn't help his physical exhaustion. He found Julius among the incredible militaristic bustle of people with a hard drive to be as ready as possible.
"did everyone make it?" it was a question with potentially crushing answers.

[Blindwalker]

The command to become defensive went out to all the ships. Every squad on the seven ships reported their number of wounded, and deaths. 83 wounded, and 17 killed, out of 147.
"Damn." He smashed his fist on a table. "Damn!" He wanted to avenge the dead and the wounded. He wanted to find the people who killed his men. He wanted to kill them. And their friends.
"Give me a rifle." He said to a soldier who stood next to him.
He ran to a weapon rack, and Hugo lifted it from his hands. Slotting in a bullet, he took a careful aim one of the men on a withdrawing airship. Still within range of fire. He pulled the trigger. The man fell back from the hit to his head. He slotted another bullet with a soft clink, and fired again. There was a thump, and another dead.
Clink
Pow
Thump
Clink
Pow
Thump
Clink

The people on the opposing deck finally saw the long range attack, and hurried inside. Hugo fired the loaded shot anyway. Well, time to meet the rest of the people he had known to help fight the threat.

[YetAnotherMatt]

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best." "Dammit." Gebbert kept hearing that conversation running through his head.

Gebbert had taken advantage of the lull in the battle to continue to work on a prototype device. He was tired, but the mental work was refreshing. All the bays but Bay 9 on the side of the Hammer slid open to allow for more repairs than the sky dock alone. Captain Skarssen had performed well for the amount by which they were out gunned. Gebbert had spent the battle thus far watching the display and making the occasional recommendation as to positioning.

It was reluctantly that he trudged back to the command center. He knew that the orders had ultimately been Captain Skarssen's, but Gebbert had agreed with him that the Implacable had needed to withdraw, and deploying a screening force had been the only possible course of action. It had barely been enough. The Implacable had only just made it back into formation, and had been at the sky dock for an hour before the battle had paused.

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best."

Gebbert still saw the circles of the screening force, the frigate USAS Gambier Bay and the Firebird mercenary group, rattling back into their slots whenever he closed his eyes, and heard the Gambier Bay's last transmission replaying in his mind. Captain Skarssen had made the right choice, the Implacable had twice as much firepower and three times as many men as the screening force, but their loss still weighed on Gebbert heavily.

"Anything?" he queried as he walked into the control room.

"Just looking at why none of our troops fired on that massive carrier at the centre of their formation. It seems the obvious target."

Gebbert declined to mention the enemy fleet that had been between their lines and the enemy carrier. He pulled the blue glass oval that had represented the Gambier Bay from his pocket, placed there as the enemy withdrew, and turned it over in his hands.

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best." "Shut up!" he yelled involuntarily.

"Sir?" The junior lieutenant was looking at him oddly, but not unkindly

"I need to go talk to someone. Tell the Captain to call me once casualty reports come in."

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best."

Gebbert walked out of the command center and towards the sky dock. He hit the button on his communicator. "Falko. Where are you?"

[The Corsair]

"I'm with Julius outside a pub called," He checked the name of the pub, "The Independent." The pub's name brought an ironic sting with it considering the circumstances.
"Are you alright Gebbert?" the man truly sounded distressed. Hopefully they could all have a beer to calm their nerves.

[Mark Peiterson]

-Sean-

After the Athena landed he shakily forced himself off the traqual peace he need, its icy cool was but a reminder to his blow, he looked around, men where trying to stay focusted on the job of fighting, the job of avenging the fallen. He was becoming a mess
" shake yourself up and get a move on, hq's gunna want a sitrap!" he thought.
As he was walking over he overheard a group of pilots talking about the carrier, it was hard not to hear them. There peircing voices breaking the icey chill of silence.
"... And then it just went pop into a ball of flame! Bet everyone of those basterds onboard deserved it."
Sean snapped and lept tirades the man bowling him over and locking him in an armlock.
"My mate was on that ship, he saved a damn lot of lives and you go round cussing him, bet you'd never do that, you fat little swine!"
With that he picked him up and walked sternly away, now with a first for revenge and answers. He stormed into the command room.
"Now I've had a bad day and I want answers, who the he'll blew up that supercarrier and where the heck are they."
Hold it sir who are you and what happened?"
"Sean Carter, Lowell group, we where in the supercarrier when a huge blast sounded, but it must of been from inside the ship, about 10 or so of us where in the ship with another 70 or so above, my frien... Segent mark peiterson chose to stay behind and saved our ship from being hit, at the cost of his life, now can you fill in the gaps?"

[YetAnotherMatt]

"Okay. I'll be there in ten." He clicked off the communicator.

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best."

"No. Out." Gebbert leaned heavily on the wall next to him, the blue oval still clutched in his hand.

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best." "OUT!" The glass shattered, the pieces falling to the ground. He half-ran to The Independent, the transmission resounding through his mind.

"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best."
"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best."
"Very well sir, Gambier Bay moving to intercept and screen. Wish the Implacable the best."

Gebbert gritted his teeth, and pushed the door open. It stung, and he noticed that his hand was bleeding.

"Whiskey. Double."

[Mark Peiterson]

"sounds like a bunch of folks we had earlier, with supernatural abilities, there at the independent."
"thanks"
Sean literally sprinted over to the pub and ran inside, anyone in here called falko and know anything a bout a certain supercarrier's demise?"