The New World

[The Corsair]

He felt like something had been ripped out of him with considerable force. He'd been shot again, only this time in his psyche. The Falcon had become something he identified as a home. He'd come here, to the new world, with a dream of settling down and forging his own life. Starting a business, starting a family, starting again. Rosie was the closest thing he had to a family, saving America had become a business and his ship was his home. That's just one thing that doesn't happen outside of war. Homes just don't disappear like that in giant balls of flame.

His head remained angled at Rosie but his glare softened and he found he was losing himself in the New York lights that sat outside the sky docks. He swayed slightly on the spot, then turned on his shaky heel, his gaze staying focussed on nothing in particular. He walked, and walked, like he was dreaming in a maze and didn't care how long it took for him to find the exit.

The ground was a fair way below the sky dock. He could see one spot where the run down houses on the city's outskirts had been smashed. It could have been anything. A rogue cannon shot, a broken engine, a different ship. Still, it could be his ship. His eyes were closed now. He wasn't sure when he had closed them. He was falling now. It didn't feel like anything in particular. He could have been eating breakfast in a comfortable town house and it would have felt no different...

He was at his ship now. It was a twisted heap of metal, half of it blown away by an engine explosion. The sheet of metal that had bisected the vessel was the only thing that didn't seem like it had warped upon impact...

He was crying now...

The sun was beginning to rise when a heap of metal was dumped on the docks with what looked like Falko plus 10 years collapsed in the middle of it by a giant sheet of metal that anyone could easily say looked like a sail...

[Callidwyn]

She remained kneeling by Julius, at a loss of what to do, hands hovering as they wondered whether to do anything.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius gently stopped breathing, and Barum shook his head in shock. He slowly stood up and turned around.
"He's gone. Miss, do you want to come with me? I'll try and get you to safet-" he turned his head to look at the woman and saw Julius' eyes were open. "Julius!" He yelled, and dropped to his knees next to the man. Julius looked blankly into the air, seemingly not hearing Barum's cry. He lay perfectly still for a moment, before every muscle in his body tensed and jerked, and he let loose a scream.
In itself it was the scream of a man in unbearable pain, but the ground heaved and boiled with it. Stone shot into the air, some small pebbles and others the size of airships. The scream continued for longer than should be possible, before abruptly it stopped and the ground stilled, the stones falling again.
Julius blinked twice and looked around.
"Barum?" he gasped.
"Yes? What is it?"
"How long was I out?"
"About five minutes I'd say." the man replied, shaking a little.
Julius nodded, than flicked his hand. The ground behind him lifted, pushing him into a standing position.
"How goes the fight?"
"We're being pushed back,  I don't know how long we can last."
Julius nodded again.
"Let's fix that then." and he looked to the enemy fleet. He held out a hand, open and pointing at the ships, before closing it quickly. Immediately the front line of ships crumpled into balls of metal and wood no bigger than a door, then fell out of the sky.
"Where is Falko and the others?" he asked Barum.
"I'm not sure, I can ask though."
"Good, we have to find them. Are you coming with us? It'll probably be more interesting, but I can't say anything about safe." he asked the woman beside him.

[Mark Peiterson]

Mark stood in the viewing canopy of the USAS Celphis, he stood silently, watching as the man in front of him, the man who had saved his life, lost all his composure, all his strength, all of his courage, and he hated it. He was helpless. He was frozen. he wished he could do something, but he could not, he could only stand there, looking through the glass, and seeing a life fall apart. He made sure he remembered that if he made it out alive, then he would do what he couldnt do now, and if he didnt make it out....

[The Corsair]

-Arch-
They seemed to be permanently on the brink of losing catastrophically. The odd part was they never quite did. He and his boys had fought near flawlessly and he couldn't help but feel that they had been definitive in preventing defeat.
Now, however, it looked like a loss was about to smack them in the face. The small sky front that had moved only inches in either direction for the last 30 minutes suddenly collapsed and was solidly broken through. The sky dock was almost completely exposed, the most essential ships were vulnerable and the 'specials' as the privateers had come to call them were nowhere to be seen...

[Mark Peiterson]

They had almost done it! Mark and his squad had managed to punch a hole in the enemy line and break through. They had landed on the top of the military compound, and the engineers had made it to the control room. They had just about finished the activation of the turrets when the enemy finally found them.
"Hold them of!" Mark shouted as suddenly 30 or so men burst through the door and started shooting. Mark dived behind a desk, narrowly avoiding a shot to the head. He jumped to his feet and let of 3 shots, killing some of the attackers. They just needed to buy the engineers all the time they could. Two more of the brutes fell to the floor. Just a little longer. Bullets rattled. They needed to fall back but they couldnt, they had to fight. Suddenly the table flew up sand mark was defenseless. Only two where left. Mark charged towards them, killing one with his pistol and then jumping at the second, knocking them both to the ground. He looked over, his pistol was just out of arms reach, and the man was heaving himself to his feet. He walked towards him. Closer. Closer. Bang, the man suddenly droped to the
ground, behind him stood adams, " close one there boss."
In the distance the sentry guns turned on and all he'll broke loose as 27 precision guns fired apon the enemy ships.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius walked to the ship and in a second saw it wasn't going to fly without repairs. He had a moment of sadness at its damage, he had liked it a great deal, but then moved on. He would fix it later, now he had to help out.
He closed his eyes and felt out the surrounding area. There some gunfire going on quite a distance away but towards the city, especially focused around the docks, there was panic and running. He realized they were practically defenseless, and without help it would be lost.
He ignored both Barum and the new woman's questions and simply stood between them, thinking 'Go'. The earth listened and shot them forwards, tilting them slightly so they didn't lose their balance. In this way they shot across the plain and quickly reached the city. As they did, Julius began to increase the height of their transport, steering it slightly and suddenly making it withdraw, dropping them gently and perfectly onto one of the walkways of the Sky Dock.
"Who is in charge here?" he bellowed. A few people had seen him arrive, and looked on in stunned silence. "Quickly now, we're running out of time and we have a war to win!"

[Blindwalker]

The loud rattle of gunfire against the hull of the awoken him. Hugo jerked up from his not-so-comfortable bed and grabbed his loaded revolver from under his pillow. He threw on some clothes, nearly stumbling over from pulling up a pair of camo leggings (even though they were on an airship, he thought they were pretty cool). Picking up his rifle from the room's gun rack, he walking quickly out the door bleary eyed but alert.
He ran towards the direction of the shooting. It wasn't a long run, as he was instantly thrown into the fight right in front of him.
"Grab some cover, sir!" some one shouted, who was hiding on the side of a doorway.
Hugo needed no further telling. He ran across the room, ducking his head as he raced towards an upturned crafting table. He loaded a round into his rusty bolt rifle and prepared. The whistle of hot lead flew past his face. He put the rifle over cover and fired a blind shot at an unseen target. A flurry of bullets came his way and hit the heavy metal table. He filled his revolvers empty shots and cocked the hammer. Quickly poking his head and gun out of hiding, he fired 2 shots at the many enemies. He ducked back down again, then unloaded more blind shots.
"This ain't gonna work!" Hugo finally discovered, shouting at the soldiers in cover. "Throw me a shotgun and some ammo!" A few seconds later, the soldier on his left gave him one and a small bag of shells. He opened up the sack and found about 20 shells, a few breaching rounds and most normal shots. He found an unusual one marked 'DB_#02'. He loaded the shell inside, and pumped the ... well... pump.
"Gimme some cover fire!" he bellowed, over the continuous gunfire. "Everyone, on my count, 1, 2, 3, cover fire!!!!"
The soldiers in shelter beefed up their courage and got up and screamed, firing round after round after round.
Hugo jumped up from cover and fired. A huge burst of white fire erupted from the barrel, and bits of metal flew from the barrel, biting into flesh. The fire lasted for a while and it fried peoples clothing as it was set alight. Everyone who was in range of the blast was hurt in someway, either screaming because they were on fire, or lying down (having a rest maybe).
Hugo dropped the busted shotgun and picked up his rifle again, shooting at anyone left standing.
Once the opposing enemies were gone, he checked out the wound on his arm. It was fine. It bled a bit, but it was fine. The medics came in and grabbed from stretchers for the wounded, pulling out bullets and patching them up.
Everyone needed some help.
He needed a coffee.

[The Corsair]

Julius is here was his only bland thought.
He picked himself up and smiled at the man he felt he hadn't seen in years.
"Mind if I'm in charge?" He responded to his friend's bellowed question with a warm but slightly hollow and forced smile.

They got straight into discussing the apparent situation. It was a battle that, at this point, required absolutely no nonsense in planning.
"We may have to call the docks a lost hope. We've treated them as being of massive strategic importance but now that we've seen deep into their lines it's apparent that they gain nothing they don't already have by taking this point. Also, we have the rest of New York to fall back on. If we can successfully fall back then we should get a little bit of time to re-organise while they prepare themselves to follow us in our retreat. Thoughts?"

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius thought for a moment. It was true that the enemy fleet didn't really need any docks. It might give them an easier time deploying ground troops, but then they neither needed to do that nor needed the docks. They could quite easily destroy the city from the air, and if they had to have troops on the ground they could simply lower themselves and let the troops off that way. The only reason that the docks had been such an important point, he thought, was that they needed them, not that the enemy did. He began to pace a little, not really focusing on anything.

"Withdrawal is our safest course of action, there are still too many people in the city we have to protect... But then if we're pushed back enough it won't matter how much we fight, we'll have already lost... You're right though, we can't stay here.. they'll pick us off from the air, and even we won't be able to stop a salvo of cannon-fire that big. Get everyone to start pulling back, I'll bring up the rear and give you as much cover as I can. How does that sound?"

[The Corsair]

"Excellent. I'll see if Gebbert has a line to the chief of police so we can get a general evacuation underway. I should see you in the sk-... I'll see you later"
He marched off to where Gebbert had been basing himself earlier, hoping he was still there, before Julius could comment on his faltering in their conversation.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius paused at Falko's hesitation, but there was too much going on for him to investigate it. He spun about and yelled at anyone he passed to ready to fall back. He reached the piers and chose one of the longest, walking out the very end. He could see the enemy fleet closing in. He supposed the only reason they hadn't fired already was they saw the defenders as no threat, and were just saving ammo.

He looked back at their own forces, and saw they were quickly massing again and retreating, pulling back into the city proper. He watched them scramble about and closed his eyes. He could feel the throbbing of energy in his skull, the same throbbing he'd felt since he came back... it wasn't fading, and he suspected he could draw on it. He also suspected strongly that if he drew on it too much he wouldn't simply die, he would cease to be.

He sighed and opened his eyes again, looking at the forces. They were moving quickly now, gaining as much time as they could. He looked at their foe again and waited. If they got too close he'd hold them off, but for now he would wait and rest.

[The Corsair]

-Arch-

He and his boys had been conclusively cut off from their allies. It was purely accidental but already his mind had it slotted beautifully into a plan. The enemy floated further toward the sky docks leaving their massive capital ships miles behind the line in comparison to the few hundred yards back they had been for most of the battle. This meant the capital ships had stopped producing new waves of ships. The five of them regrouped and landed...

* * *

-Cliff-

Arch was incorrigible no doubt, but he was a genius and this plan was proof of it. They had seen Falko spend a good half an hour aboard one of the capital ships, they could last indefinitely if they were clever. The plan was of course totally ridiculous but the idea that they could piggy back on the whole fleet and potentially find the enemy's base of operations was far too phenomenal to not try and implement. They were now in the air, drifting lazily and quietly toward the enemy's backline. This battle was theirs, the enemy just didn't know it.

[YetAnotherMatt]

"I'm well ahead of you there. General civilian evacuation was sounded when we received news that the enemy was headed here." Gebbert chuckled slightly as he responded to the overheard statement through the headset.

"This is Hammer control. All able ships prepare to depart skydock at once. All ships prepare to depart and go to combat readiness."

Captain Skarssen had been ordered by the medical officer to get some sleep, and the line around the skydock had held for almost an hour. Gebbert and Lyrren were seated around the central table, co-ordinating what was left of the fleet.

They were being pushed heavily now. The mass produced enemy cruisers were not well-built or deadly, but they rushed the allied lines with a suicidal zeal.

"That's all the reserve units committed, Lieutenant." Gebbert looked over the battlemap and realised that there seemed to be no less enemies then when they started. "If we can't hold them here, we regroup over the Hudson river. If we cannot hold there, all ships are to make best time to the Philidelphia skydock."

"Enemy scout group at 258 magnetic." Lyrren could see them out the viewport, and in fact the whole allied force was now within visual distance, with their perimeter pressed on both the west and north edges.

"Detail Panther to intercept."

"One Gunboat, sir?" The Ensign at the table looked confused.

"We don't have anything else to spare."

The lone gunboat left formation, darting towards the enemy scouts who were lazily floating around their perimeter. Suddenly a hail of small calibre shell tore tore through the lead enemy. The other two scouts turned sharply, but one burst into flame from an incendiary round, and the other took a twelve inch shell dead center and disintegrated.

"Panther, this is Hammer." Gebbert sounded more confused than Lyrren had heard him before. "Belay that previous order."

"Aye sir." The Panther's captain sounded vaguely amused.

"This is USAS Liberty, Ensign Shepherd commanding. Enemy boarders repulsed. We are returning to the fight. The Panther owes us drinks."

"No personal comments, Ensign," smirked Lyrren.

Suddenly, someone at the battlemap gave a cry of alarm. "Sir, ten unknown capital ships just turned up on the eastern side of the display, in battleline formation. Signal consistent with new model Dreadnoughts." The battlemap only extended about five miles east of the skydock, as they had expected no attacks from that direction.

A new voice, with a strong accent broke in over the communicator.

"Have you finally got the thing working? This is HMANV Triumph, Rear Admiral Trevor Howes commanding British Atlantic Fleet Corps Second Division. A mutual friend requested our presence here. Please clear our fire-lanes."

The gun turrets on ten dreadnoughts boomed, fluttering ten British naval ensigns.

One hundred and eight sixteen inch shells hurtled towards the enemy force.

[The Corsair]

He had no ship to flee on... His was a tangled mess. Rosie had taken the initiative and had it moved aboard a fairly standard frigate that was in for refueling, the HMAS Hound, and he figured he could find some way of repairing it... Hopefully.

Meanwhile, he had to get on to the ground. The immediate difference between fighting around tge sky dock and fighting over New York was that one of the two had streets below it with makeshift AA batteries. The enemy would no doubt put men down to take them-
or angels down...
... To try and take them or shut them down. They had to defend these points and Faloo fully intended on leading this defense while he was aerially impotent.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius was watching the army retreat, they were making good time but the enemy was beginning to advance... obviously they didn't want the defending forces having enough time to rally, and had Julius been in their position he would have done exactly the same thing.
Unfortunately for the attackers, Julius wasn't on their side. As a ship drew too close he demonstrated this, by simply pulling every slab of metal, every wooden joist and any dirt (there wasn't much aside from the stuff on boots) down to the ground. The ship seemed to hang in the air for a moment, before plummeting like, rather appropriately, a stone.
Julius grinned to himself, and began to raise the earth. He did it slowly this time, drawing energy as much from the earth itself as from himself. He only raised thin pillars, but they were strong enough that a ship hitting it wouldn't do much else.
Within around ten minutes the dock had a wall of these thin pillars that was long enough the enemy couldn't risk going round, but just short enough they could go over if they ascended. It would take time to ascend, and all the while the army were picking off more of their ships as they retreated, firing desperately, and often randomly, into the fleet.

[Mark Peiterson]

 Mark and his squad had got back from the operation to turn on the Anti Airship batteries, filled with relief that they had done something big when the alarm sounded in the skydock.
"This is Hammer control, all able ships depart the skydock immediately and fall back to rally point Hudsen. All infantry personal will be airlifted down to key locations around manhattan, commence to section D for transport."
Mark swore under his breath, they had tried their best and yet had failed.
"You heard the thing, move it people!" he shouted.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar figure walk inside of a beat up frigate. "Hendrie, wait, come with me, you are an engineer right?"
"yes sir!"
"you wouldn't mind helping that man repair that ship would you?
As he said that they walked up the ramp into the USAS Hound.

[The Corsair]

Aboard the departing Hound Falko planned his getting on to the ground. They were moving to something called rally point Hudson, presumably on the line the Hudson river made through New York just back from the Sky Dock. The military had really thought the battle through in a level of depth that Falko wouldn't have even begun to think about. His plan was to find what men he could that were willing and able to fight on the Hound and coordinate them into a defensive pattern that protected the increasingly precious AA batteries. Those guns were all the advantage they still had over the enemy.

He quite conveniently ran into the man Mark Peiterson, possibly the happiest accident of the night, and immediately went about recruiting him and his incredibly skilled men into his own defensive unit. He also guessed that Mark would be better suited to coordinating the group than he himself would be.

"Mr Peiterson, I need your help. We need to protect those AA emplacements at all costs and I hope you can fill in the blanks as to what I'm wanting to do."

[Thebeastyness]

He had done it. He had avenged his parents. Mr. Smith was finally dead and now and looking over Mr. Smith's dead body Bloodbath realised he felt nothing. He had fantasised about this moment for years and now that he was dead he felt nothing. Killing Mr Smith didn't bring his parents back, though Bloodbath was content that he had finally avenged their deaths. He left the building he couldn't look at Mr Smith's body anymore. In a way he pitied him the man had led a lonely life and died alone.

Something good had come of Mr Smith's death though it was an arm bracelet of technology far beyond current technology, so far ahead it looked almost alien. He was still mastering it but he had come to believe it amplified his time travelling powers and with the right energy he believed he could travel forward or backward in time indefinitely...

That night Bloodbath lay near the campfire he made and contemplated whether it was all worth it. He had avenged his parents but at what cost? He had killed so very many people... was it all worth it? He lay down and looked up at the stars. He remembered Falko and the other crazy people he had met on that airship so long ago now. He wondered if he could join them again. Now that he had completed his lifelong vendetta he had no idea what to do with the rest of his life. He glanced at the mysterious device which began to whirr then a high pitched squeal sounded he closed his eyes and cringed in pain he felt the sensation of spinning over and over then all was quiet. Bloodbath opened his eyes. He was on the Hound.

[The Corsair]

Having a clawed man materialise next to you is one of the most startling experiences you can ever have. When this very thing happened to Falko he swore loudly out of surprise. Thankfully he recognised the man attached to the claws as the only man with claws that Falko knew, Bloodbath. He had a strong suspicion the nickname was one created by the man himself but still it was polite to refer to him by his preferred name.
"Bloodbath, glad you could be here, we need a few ruthless people defending New York. It's under attack you see." a distant boom punctuated his sentence.

[Thebeastyness]

He was on the Hound. He would have to examine this device further, possibly even ask Falko more about it he may after all know the right energy to use and Bloodbath could gain the ability to travel through time indefinitely... the power, the unimaginable power. He would be a God with that kind of power... Would it be wise to tell Falko? Though Falko was a wise man he'd know what to do besides he seemed like a man you could trust. At this moment the very man he wanted to see called out to him
"Bloodbath, glad you could be here, we need a few ruthless people defending New York. It's under attack you see" There was a boom off in the distance and Falko barely even turned, he spoke in such an off handed casual manner that Bloodbath suspected he was used to this kind of action.
"Under attack? New York?" Bloodbath took a moment to come to terms with things "Yes... yes I'd love to help what's attacking it?"

[The Corsair]

"Airships. Lots of them. There is the possibility that they will deploy angels on the ground but we have seen nothing to suggest there are angels with the fleet. Nevertheless, they will need to put people down to eliminate our AA batteries and we have to defend these. The fleet's Commodore is dead but clearly the chain of command facilitates for this loss."

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius was now sitting on the edge of the pier. He'd been standing for what he considered quite long enough, and was due a rest. The towers were holding quite nicely, and the ships were waiting just beyond them, taking the occasionally shot from the AA batteries behind him.
They seemed to be deliberating something, and sure enough they reached a conclusion. Chain-shot began to rain down into Julius' pillars, and within seconds they started to topple. Not wanting the earth to land on anyone, Julius stood and withdrew them, leaving the way clear for the airships. They began to advance and Julius swore rather colourfully.
He spun and reached out, feeling for someone with powers. It didn't take him long, and a quick sprint (he thought he had been doing far too much running lately, and promised himself a tall drink and rest later) he felt the source of these powers was aboard an airship. He could make out who it was, and swearing again braced himself before a spike of earth catapulted him onto the ship. He judged it badly and landed in a sprawled heap on the deck, swearing louder than ever before.

[The Corsair]

A crash and an expletive marked Julius' arrival. He sounded close by so Falko figured he could sit tight and discuss with Mark and Bloodbath and Julius would fond them soon.

[Augustus Longeye]

With a groan and some help from a few crewmen who rushed over, Julius hauled himself to his feet.
"Who's on board, and where are they?" he asked the person nearest to him.
"You mean your friends? Over there." the man pointed. Julius wasted no time and strode off (wincing as he did) and very quickly found Falko and Mark, as well as someone who looked vaguely familiar but Julius couldn't pin...
"Falko, they're free to move again."