The New World

[The Corsair]

"We need to be out there now then."
And, as he spoke, the Hound touched down at rally point Hudson.
"We'll take what we've got. They may not drop troops but we can't wait for them to get men on the ground first."
He marched off the ship into the makeshift headquarters that had been established there. Captain Skarssen was addressing the surviving airmen and women already. The defensive plan was largely established for the air it seemed but the potential ground attack hadn't been discussed. Falko raised the matter privately with Skarssen and was soon given a detachement of about 50 men from the Hammer who he then referred to Mark.

[Thebeastyness]

They had landed. And Bloodbath had no idea what to do... Airships thundered off in the distance and Falko had already disembarked, god knows where he was now. And that man who gave Falko orders was already long gone. The rest of the crew that he saw last time were nowhere to be seen and they were heading into a battlezone. But it's not as if he could blame them  Bloodbath was still a bit disorientated from the teleport and had stayed behind to collect himself and by the time he could think straight again they had all gone. Bloodbath disembarked the Hound. There was a makeshift army headquarters nearby, Bloodbath would have asked what the hell was going on but they looked busy enough already. Bloodbath had reached a clearing and gazed out at New York in the distance... the city was in ruin. It was a shame, he had more than a few good memories there, like the one time he... Suddenly the bracelet started to whirr "Oh you've got to be kidding me" thought Bloodbath then a high pitched squeal sounded and again Bloodbath was brought to his knees in agony. He managed to keep his eyes open this time. Everyone within 3 or so metres of him was on their knees with their hands over their ears. Mimicking him. Then the spinning began again. Bloodbath felt dizzy. The whole world was blurry. He wouldn't be able to last much longer. And then... it stopped. He opened his eyes. He was in New York.

There were fires everywhere, a few dead bodies in the road and about half a dozen people fleeing for safety. He looked up. An airship was looming overhead.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing out in the open!?"
Bloodbath turned to the source of the sound it was a man crouching in a building.
"Well don't just stand there, they'll see you come on!" he half yelled half whispered this.
Bloodbath scuttled over to the dark, half destroyed building the man was in. The man obviously hadn't seen him materialise or else he wouldn't have yelled out.
"What's your name?" he asked trying to make small talk
"Max" Jack lied "Max Fletcher". One of Axel's favourite aliases, after all he had a lot of enemies in the Big Apple and you could never be too careful.
"John Reese" he replied "So Max, ever been here before?"
"No" he lied.
A man stupidly ran out into the road. In plain sight of one of the airships. There was a large explosion and the mans arm went barelling towards Bloodbath and John. They both ducked and the decapitated arm splatterred into the wall behind them.
"Well Max" said John "Welcome to New York"

[Ella, Aerial Musketeer]

A pained scream ripped thru the air
"NOOOOOO o god no please no "daddy nooooo"
The air ships guns swivelled towards the sound and once agin silence descended except for muffed sobs.

[Mark Peiterson]

Mark surveyed the surrounding skyscraper anxiously, he had a bad felling he couldn't explain in the pit of his stomach, and glanced over at his second in command. After almost 7 years of fighting together Lieutenant Charleston was almost as indispensable and useful as his gun, he had once held almost 2000 indians with less than 500 riflemen if his own and brought his command back almost undamaged! But those where the bad old days, now the enemy wasn't some local vigilantes but the very fabric of the aether. He was jolted again by the same feeling, he saw Charleston's face waver as well. He hid the fear away, knowing that if his troops saw him waver, they would have reason to be terrified. Besides he had just under 600 men here, most the veterans of the 5th army, plus another 4000 holding a line across manhattan, supported by the as batteries, and two squadrons of anti airship gunships, they could hold a ground assault at bay for days, plenty of time to allow the civilians to evacuate. Little did he know that his fear was rightly placed, as finally the Leader of the enemy forces had joined the fleet.

[The Corsair]

The enemy had hit the flank of New York they discovered as Dawn began to break. Thankfully Captain Skarssen had a reaction plan to this but it stretched them thinner and Falko found himself well away from Rally Point Hudson trying to defend the flank from the ground. The Vancouver boys had reacted the fastest and the Implacable made a reappearance on the frontline. It was holding the enemy at by but a good few bombing ships had already made it through and had been laying waste to New York. Falko was presently trying to clean up the 10 or so bombers remaining as they couldn't divert any more ships from the front and the AA batteries simply weren't built this far back.
It seemed on the surface that this was a massive blow to them but really the enemy would lose bombers, a type of ship they hadn't seen produced by the larger carriers, the bombers had only bombed evacuated areas (or at least mostly evacuated, no doubt some people would have stayed behind) and they now had the divided enemy held at bay. As far as strategy went, they had thwarted the enemy's flanking plan.
He spotted another airship drifting lazily toward some residential buildings that were largely intact. He picked the highest of these (which admittedly was only about 3 storeys high) and ram towards it with the intention of launching himself from it and sabotaging the bomber.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius was somewhat confused. He couldn't quite make sense of what was happening, and it all seemed to be a bit beyond him. He was thinking quite normally, he hadn't received a concussion, but the world just wasn't... right at the moment.
He staggered off of the Hound and into the rally point, and then found a crate and sank onto it. He tried to make sense of things, or even just to get an idea of what to destroy so he could do something. People rushed backwards and forwards, none stopped to look at him, and he sat and pondered.

[The Corsair]

It was when he went to summon his strength to leap onto the bomber that he noticed something off in the world. It seemed like someone was establish themselves via the aether. The only reason Falko could see for doing such a thing was if one wanted to make themselves known to aetherically responsive people. Or beings... Did someone want them to know they were here or was someone here for the angels? There had been nothing as of yet to suggest angels were on any of the ships, or indeed in the enemy's airforce as a whole. Still, in his mind both of the scenarios he could imagine were just as dangerous as each other.

[linnetfallowynd]

Elspeth MacAlister let out a long hissing breath as she wiped blood (not her own) and sweat from her brow. She cocked her head and examined the freshly stitched wound.
"Not a bad job," she murmered, half to herself. Looking up at the aviator whose arm now bore her handiwork she nodded in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.
"Ye'll be fine." His terrified eyes met hers. She turned away. Corpses were so much easier to deal with.
Trying to ignore the terrible roars and crashes from the airships above she jerked her head from side to side as she strode through the ravaged streets, trying to find someone she could help. Apart from soldiers in need of her needle and ointments she longed for sane people who could still give her a purpose. Someone to bring a bit of order back to the 'brave new life' she now suddenly found in chaos. They didn't even have to be Scottish.
"Though I could do wi' a stiff dram right about now," she mused, ducking a shower of rubble from above. Just over two years in the New World and she had to admit it was nothing like she'd been led to expect.

[Ella, Aerial Musketeer]

Ela ran tho the ruins blindly she wanted to get away from this terrible place away from the pain. Away. the noise above her had returned she was scared so scared. suddenly she stopped and entered a house a small contraption was lying on the floor it looked like a box with wings. She grind and put it on and gave her shoulders a shake two bat like metal wings sprung open she then puled a chain that was by her left leg and the machine was coxed to life and settled into that hum that steam engines made. she ran out side and jumped in to the air, the wings flapped once,twice and she took off.O the joy to fly agin now all she had to do was get out

[Thebeastyness]

"Max I have a plan to destroy the airships but I'm gonna need your help" John pleaded, he looked into Axel's eyes with such desperation that Axel couldn't say no.
"Ok I'll help but on one condition"
"Anything" John replied
"If we should find anything interesting on this little escapade, it's mine, got it?"
'Agreed" John smiled "Oh I'm sure you'll find this VERY interesting"
Axel sensed something sinister when John said this but he ignored it after all it was in all likelihood probably his distrusting nature.
"Well go on" Axel growled rather impatiently.
"Ok Max here's how we're gonna do it, first we need to get past all the airships, whatever you do don't go out into the street, that's the killzone, you go there you die, I'm still amazed they didn't see you the first time. To get past the airships we need to sneak through the buildings, in case we run up to a wall I have a few grenades here that should pack enough of a punch to destroy any blockages we run into. We should reach an AA battery which we can then use to shoot those blasted airships right out of the sky"
"Well then" Axel replied "Lets get going"

[The Corsair]

Falko lay flat on the roof and watched the bomber drift lazily past the building. He dug his shoes in to the concrete and pushed forwards, springing up into a sprint. An expert placement of his toes on the edge of the building combined with a massive push had him flying through the air to the ship. With a little boost from his powers, which he was avoiding overusing, he made it on to the enormous gas bag. Taking a quick look at the ground below the ship he made sure there were no people who had avoided evacuating or were moving to help defend the flank before taking a deep breath and swung his right arm in a slashing motion, sending out a blade-like wave of air that sliced the bomber's gas bag quite neatly from fore to aft. At that, he sprung backwards to land back on the building he had hid on.
From the roof he watched the bomber drop solidly from the air. When it hit the ground the remainder of its payload exploded, shaking the buildings and covering the street in fire, making it entirely impassable from the ground.
As he moved back to the edge of the buidling to drop down it began to violently shale beneath him as it lurched sideways. He braced himself low and attempted to stay upright as the building collapsed sideways. Just as it seemed he would fall off into the rubble the building came to a rest at a violent angle that did its best to stop Falko from staying standing. He let out a relieved but shaky laugh as he casually dropped off the side onto the rubble pile that had smothered half the fire.
The nearest airship was about two blocks away and Falko began to jog toward it.

[Thebeastyness]

They had ran through the buildings and now Bloodbath could see the AA battery up in the distance, or at least what he assumed what was the AA battery , it had the strangest look about it. Not only was it at least twice as large as any AA battery he'd ever seen but it also had gun barrels big enough to fit a human being into them... it couldn't be a gun... it was simply too big.
"John, what exactly is that thing?" Axel asked now rather suspicious.
"Why, it's an AA battery what else do you think it would be?" John replied in a hostile way.
"You're telling me that that monstrous device over there is an AA battery!?" Axel shouted
"YES I AM!!" John yelled back, Axel didn't like this man he seemed disturbed, sinister and probably a little crazy.
"Cut the bullshit John what the hell is that thing?"
John sighed "Fine, it's a new experimental AA battery. You see most AA battery's shoot bullets at aircrafts to shoot them down, very simple concept, but these shoot missiles and have at least double the range. I know all this because I , and a few others, worked on it in secret before New York came under attack. We rolled it out in time but were all killed before we could use it. Well except me."
It was possible... Axel still didn't trust this man but it looked like it did exactly what he said it did. It appeared like the kind of thing that would shoot missiles up into the air.
"Alright fine lets destroy some airships"

They were on the AA battery now. It was a monstrous thing , absolutely massive, Bloodbath didn't even know where to start.
"So, John where do I sit in this... thing, to control it?" Axel asked
"Right over there" John smiled
Axel despised this man, he hated him more and more as he got to know him better. But he wanted to save this city so Axel sat down.
"Alright time to blast these airships right out of the sky" Axel said rather eagerly "So it looks like it works like a normal AA gun which button to I press to activiate it?"
"Just click that red button over there Bloodbath" John laughed
This man clearly had some issues Axel clicked the button.
"Alright so we shou... I never told you my name was Bloodbath." By the time he had realised his mistake it was too late, solid steel clamps wrenched his wrists and ankles down on the armrests on the seat so that he couldn't even move his hands or feet. John was laughing hysterically now. He was clearly insane.
"John you son of a bitch what did you do!?" Axel yelled with such a maniacal fury that John stopped laughing.
Unphased by Axel  John walked right up to Axel looked him directly in the eye, he was uncomfortably close to him now.
"Nothing personal Bloodbath" He was millimetres away from Bloodbath now "Just business"
With that John clicked a green button and the whole seat and control station started to transform. Steel whizzed in every direction until Axel was completely cased inside a steel case.
"Have a nice trip Max" With that Max went shooting up into the air with no idea where he was headed.

[Ella, Aerial Musketeer]

a mettle object whizzed past in and Elas mouth dropped open
"you have got to be joking" she muttered "theres some one in there" she look down and could see a man looking pleased with him self
that could have got me killed who dose he think he is she thort to her self "i will show him"
she swooped down and landed softly behind the man keeping the wings spread she walked up behind him, as she go closer she puled out a knife. She stood up on tiptoe and put the knife to his neck
"just who the hell do you think you are and why did you do that" her voice shaking with anger.

[YetAnotherMatt]

The co-ordination of the fleet had disintegrated, along with the lines of communication, as an enemy cruiser had fallen onto New York's communications centre. The loss of lines of communications on both sides of the combat had turned the battle into a brawl. The result was that no one other than those on the bridge of the Hammer knew or noticed that the British fleet had arrived.

The first British volley tore through the pickets and escorts on the northern edge of the opposing fleet. Several scout-ships were torn open by the heavy shells, and at least one heavy cruiser took several hits before falling out of the sky in three pieces.

Lyrren thought momentarily. "HMANV Triumph, this is USAS Hammer. Adjust targeting south by 350 yards, and fire at will."

Skarssen was trying to restore order to his line of battle. "All ships, form on rally point Hudson. Clear lines of fire for the British Atlantic fleet Corps, and destroy any hostiles that attempt to close with them."

[The Corsair]

-Rosie-

Rosie had left the Hound to regroup on the Hammer where she hoped to find some slightly more familiar faces. She was greeted with a mass of half-panicked ensigns and officers. She had become used to being able to march straight to the bridge of a ship unquestioned and did so, eventually finding Captain Skarssen attempting to keep as much order as he could. Communications were down everywhere according to him. She could help him, that much she knew.
"Tell me who needs what orders and I can relay it to them. It's one-way but I hope it can help."
She didn't exactly mention it was telepathy but Skarssen's reaction told her he guessed it was, or was at least something like it. Men like Skarssen had come to expect such things from them. Specials was the word she'd heard being tossed around by the soldiers and airmen.

[linnetfallowynd]

Ralley point Hudson. It was the phrase on the lips of every man and woman Elspeth had helped along the road. In her mind this phrase meant supplies and soldiers, a plan of action, and now she was here.
She fingered the clasp on her satchel nervously as she breathed in the smell of powder magazine and coal fumes. She suddenly regretted that her guardian had not seen fit to educate her in the ways of sword or pistol. She slipped her hand into her leather instrument roll and her resolve was instantly hardened when she felt the cold thrill of steel. Of course she would be useful. In battles such as this the skilled surgeon's scalpel was as vital as the saber.
She gritted her teeth in determination. She had made it this far, now all she had to do was find the medical officer in charge of this operation.

[Mark Peiterson]

Mark had sent soldiers to maintain the front line and had personally gone down to maintain order in the non combatants, he was currently instructing some injured civilians  to the medical station. Just as he had sent them on their way, a huge explosion rattled the front line, and people came stampeding down towards them, may screaming in terror.
"DOES ANY ONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FIXING UP PEOPLE HERE?!"yelled, mark, his stern voice raddled with desperation.

[Blindwalker]

"What's your destination?" asked the captain.
"I believe we..." Hugo takes out his map, "Are going to..." Pulls out a small note from pocket, "Assist and reinforce when we are needed. There are some things that need to be downed first."
"What's that? We need to move soon and meet the others for instructions, this is not the time to have your meals!" he shouted aggressively.
"I'm think you miss understood me sir. We have seen the movement of ally airships and apparently they may need our help. May I please request to form a another spearhead formation to attack."
The captain thought for a brief second, then picked up the radio.
"Spearhead formation with remaining ships, prepare to assault remaining bogies."
A series of "Over"'s and "Roger that"'s and they slowly took their places in the group.
"Grab yer guns and fit some armor on, Officer." The captain said. "Let's go."
Hugo saluted, turned smartly on his heel to face his men. "Men, arm yourselves and prepare yourselves for impact."
Everyone saluted an marched to the armory. Lots of them grabbed rifles, some pistols, and few explosives. Some men in their free time have tried working on a gas or air pressured handheld firearm that could fire explosives, but with not much success. He himself walked into the armory and picked up a shotgun, a few grenades, and his gift from a friend which was a powerful 5 shot revolver.
"Let's do dis!" he thought enthusiastically to himself.

[The Corsair]

Falko lined up for his next jump, feeling an uncomfortable amount of dizziness build up as he did, when a distant explosion sent bodies flying on the front line. Whatever the hell was going on there, it wasn't good.
He still carried on through with his jump but before sabotaging the next bomber he took the time to observe the front line to try and get an idea of what the hell had gone on. It wasn't a sabotaged AA battery, that would have made a smaller blast. His best guess was that a lucky bomber had snuck through the defensive pattern and dropped everything on a suicide run. The flaming wreckage below the explosion backed up this hypothesis.
He sliced the bomber he stood on in two, like he had the last one, and again jumped off to the nearest building. He had learned his lesson this time and made a dash for the next building over which, thankfully, only shook slightly in the ensuing rumble caused by the simultaneous detonation of bombs far more powerful than anything he'd known to exist.
He looked again to the front to see a wedge of ships gathering. The enemy ship that had caused the explosion had left a gap in the line! They could break through! The enemy was stretched thin due to Skarssen's intelligent defensive plan, the AA batteries and large doses of luck and it seemed the defenders had just enough spare ships to muster a final spearhead to split the enemy's line and encircle them.
He threw his fist into the air, though perhaps it was a premature gesture. Still, he was excited and wanted more than anything to be out of this hellhole and back on the Fa-...
No, his home was gone...
He spotted the next bomber and, by forcing thoughts of his ship out of his mind, managed to utilise the remainder of his euphoria to move himself into position.

After a solid 10 minutes of 'rinse and repeat' with the bombers, they were gone and Falko trudged back to the flank. It was holding, but was running out of the luck that the front line was thriving on. He was alone while he walked and felt more hot tears slowly drift down his cheeks. He didn't want any of this! Why was it his responsibility? It had already taken the only thing he had in the whole of the USA, a home.
Rosie... his mind whispered through the depressed haze threatening to make its nest in his mind, You still have Rosie.
He picked his pace slightly and looked up. He would arrive with a plan dammit. He was only just holding back whatever god awful state of mind was trying to close itself in on him and while he was holding it back, he would fight, and he would fight well.
For his country.

[linnetfallowynd]

Elspeth staggered, head reeling from the nearby explosion. She managed to keep herself upright, just.
"DOES ANY ONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT FIXING UP PEOPLE HERE?!" The voice sounded distant in her still ringing ears.
Someone should get that man a doctor, the words drifted through her scrambled thoughts like dust in the aether.
"Hell," she muttered to herself as her mind became clear again and she recalled exactly what it was she was here for. 
"Doctor here!" she cried out, running towards the place she thought the voice had sounded from, though it had been hard to tell in the confusion. Loud bursts of sound shuddered down from above. Elspeth didn't look up. There was something important happening in the air for certain but she was needed on the ground.
Panting Elspeth rounded a corner and ran straight into a soldier. As he exclaimed in surprise she recognized his as the voice from the distance.
"Sir!" Good start, she thought. Sounds military. "Doctor Elspeth MacAlister ready to fix. Where do you need me?"

[Blindwalker]

Men stood at attention with their weapon/s of choice at their side, waiting for Hugo's orders.
"Robert, your squad on the left side on mounted heavy support weapons, have regular ammo until you get into closer range of 300 meters. Then request specialized incendiary rounds from squad Zero on front. Squad Zero, you are to lend any unused ammunition to any other squad, and you may request assistance from any other. Charlie, you are with Zero at the front, make sure you all have scoped rifles."
The short officer paused briefly for a moment to let them check their gear.
"My squad, you are on the right side, opposite Robert's. Any questions?"
"Sir" shouted someone at the back "What equipment is recommended?"
With a bit of thought, "If possible, man all other support weapons that Robert's is not using. Otherwise grab a rifle and anti-armor bullets, or if you want... you can try out that prototype of yours."
"Yes sir!" he said.
"Good! Go, go, go!" Everyone rushed to their places with a heavy, rhythmic jog.
 The Captain of the airship shouted at him. "Breach in enemy wall!"
"Take it!" Hugo yelled back.
"I know, I'm not that stupid!"
The small group of airships advanced towards the break in the line of bogies still fighting it out.
He took his place with his guns. Already he could hear the whistle of the bullets and shells flying out between the two sides. Then the rifles of squad Zero were rattling and hitting with deadly force.
He took out his revolver and started unloading bullets into the enemy. The boom and roar of penetrating shells meeting enemies metal was loud and pleasing. There was hail of hot lead zipping past made Hugo duck down into shelter, his back against it feeling the metal ping a smack on his possibly-temporary hiding spot. He growled in frustration and pulled a pin from a grenade, and threw it over. Unfortunately, he hit unaware enemy's head, but it bounced off and managed to get away before the man was blown to bits.
The grenades have a long fuse, he thought to himself. He heard a loud WUMP and a few seconds later an explosion. He looked in the direction of the sound. It was the team who had managed to create a launcher that could fire explosives. The end result: a hole large enough for a young boy to go through was made in the hull of an enemy airship.
Fantastic.

[Mark Peiterson]

All around mark chaos gripped the crowds, parents screaming for children, lovers for each other and others from agony. Mark did his best to retain little order, but it wasn't working, then he heard a Scottish voice in the crowd "Doctor here!"
"The infirmary is that building over to your left with the red cross painted on it. There's not much supplies but we can only hope command will get more soon. Ask for Doctor Finch when your there, he'll set you up."
After pointing the doctor in the right direction he scrambled of to the front lines, he had a bad feeling.

[The Corsair]

Henry Skarssen had now spent two days going above and beyond his role as captain of the Implaccable and in those two days his second-in-command, the twenty-something Nigel Garrow, had done a damn fine job of waiting for the ship to be repaired. When the sky dock was abandoned the Implaccable had to fly off without being fully repaired. However, hull integrity was decent enough for it to fly into battle and its sheer number of guns, however small in calibre they may be, were more than making up for what it presently lacked in manoeuvrability and defense.

Falko met Garrow on the bridge of the Implaccable soon after his arrival at the stalemate on the flank. The man was youthful and energetic but looked very aquiline as though a 40 year old man had given his facial structure to charity and Nigel had been on the receiving end of the donation. Garrow was proving his competency as a captain of a dreadnought-class airship by holding the stalemate despite being heavily outnumbered. Then again, Garrow had some of the best ships he could have hoped for at his disposal. The Vancouver men weren't exactly prone to taking orders from the military but they were doing what Garrow would have instructed anyway so Garrow only had to coordinate a small number of fairly standard frigate-class airships. Falko planned to turn the tide on this line and had been discussing his plan with Nigel for a few minutes when the two arrived at the conclusion that Falko should try and turn the Implaccable into a missile so as to physically break through the enemy line and fire a broadside that the enemy would simply not have the capability of reacting to.

Falko now stood on the highest exposed deck of the Implaccable and closed his eyes, waiting for the bellowed '3, 2, 1' that was about to ring out.

[linnetfallowynd]

Finch was a short stout man with an impressive mustache and overall demeanor that shouted military doctor at the top of its voice.
"Which ship you with?" he barked.
"P-pardon?" Elspeth stammered, confused.
"Well, 's obvious you're not one of ours." She followed his gaze down to her frayed and bloodied skirt and worn leather satchel. It was true she could not be mistaken for an army doctor. Finch narrowed his eyes.
"You one of these magic sorts? Don't condone it myself. Aether's not meant for man's eyes." Elspeth tried to suppress her surprise at this statement and managed to restrict herself to one raised eyebrow. Of course she'd had some experience, you don't spend nights on end hanging around in graveyards without coming into some sort of contact with the aether. However, she hadn't had any trouble since she'd come to America. Her curiosity was rising but first she had to decide what to say to Finch. She decided the truth, but perhaps not the whole truth was in order.
"I'm not with an airship. I just arrived. I was working in an inn in Manhattan when the trouble started and I thought I could be of more help here than evacuated with the rest." Finch pursed his lips, then suddenly smiled broadly at her.
"Name?"
"Elspeth MacAlister."
"Well MacAlister, you'll have plenty of chance to prove your stuff," he motioned towards a crowd of groaning civilians with one arm. "Not got much in the way of pain relief but I guess you'll just have to stitch fast." He looked troubled.
"I carry quite a few tinctures," she patted the satchel. "And there's plenty plants I've seen about the river could be used for something if need be." Doctor Finch's eyes brightened.
"An apothecary too! Well we'd best get to it." He patted her on the back and turned to the injured. Right. Elspeth rolled up her sleeves. Let's get to work.

[thefrozenwulf]

Yuri got ready for another boarding. This fight was dragging on forever, it seemed.